Something is different with these Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengals are 3-1 through the first quarter of the NFL season and with one more win this season; they’ll tie the total number of wins they had from a season ago and they have 13 games to play.
This team has much higher aspirations than just eclipsing their win total from the 2020 season. And more importantly, they have the talent to make it happen.
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Since head coach Zac Taylor was hired in 2019, he has devoted every resource to building the right culture in Cincinnati. You’ll hear it from Taylor himself and his players, the Bengals’ locker room is as connected as they’ve ever been.
“I think we've identified the right people that should be in the building,” Taylor said. “It's fun to watch them. They love each other. They love playing for each other. They're not selfish, they don't need their own stats and their accolades and their own game balls. You just watch when you give out the game balls after a game, the reaction of the team, they're just so happy for the guys that get them. It's just awesome.”
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It didn’t happen overnight and there’s been a lot of growing pains over the last two years. But four weeks into the season, it appears Taylor is finally seeing the fruits of his labor.
While it’s still very early in the season and there’s no guarantee the Bengals will continue to have the same type of success, the foundation the team has in place is something that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Cincinnati’s main leaders happen to be some of their best players. The Bengals seven team captains: Quarterback Joe Burrow, wide receiver Tyler Boyd, running back Joe Mixon, defensive end Sam Hubbard, safety Jessie Bates, safety Vonn Bell and punter Kevin Huber.
The average of the Bengals’ captains is 26. It’s part of the reason why the excitement around this team is so high. There’s a lot of young talented players on the roster who want to win and are learning how to do so.
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Of the three wins, two have come in the final moments of the game. In Week 1, the Bengals’ defense stepped up in a big way to force a turnover to give the ball back to the offense in overtime to beat the Vikings. In Week 4, it was Cincinnati’s offense that carried the load against the Jaguars. The Bengals are playing complementary football and finding ways as a team to win games.
And that’s what the best teams do.
“The biggest difference is we’ve got guys who trust in each other and we’re playing hard,” linebacker Logan Wilson said of the difference between this team and last year’s team.
Wilson’s play through four games is one of the biggest surprises of the year. The second-year middle linebacker leads the AFC in tackles with 40 and has recorded three interceptions.
The additions of defensive end Trey Hendrickson and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi in free agency have also played a role in the early defensive success. Cornerbacks Mike Hilton and Chidobe Awuzie have shored up the Bengals’ secondary and for the most part, there hasn’t been one hole identified in Cincinnati’s defense.
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Offensively, the Bengals have shown they aren’t just a team that has “talent on paper” anymore. They are putting it all together and playing up to the expectations set for themselves from the outside.
Burrow looks like the quarterback he was before suffering his gruesome knee injury. He’s gaining more confidence in his ability to make plays with his legs again, something he wasn’t sure he would be able to do following surgery. Cincinnati’s franchise quarterback has been one of the most accurate passers in the NFL and ranks No. 4 in passing yards with 988.
He makes this offense go.
“He gets better and better as pressure comes on,” Boyd said of Burrow. “As games go later and later, he gets better and better. We feed off that and we feel it. So that means we’ve got to be on point because we know he’s coming on point.”
First-round pick wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is showing why he was worth the No. 5 overall pick. Chase was named the NFL’s Rookie of the Month for his performance in September and leads the Bengals in touchdown receptions.
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Boyd continues to be Burrow’s “security blanket” on third down and without wide receiver Tee Higgins in the lineup for two games, has been the player Burrow has relied on most.
And after allowing nine sacks on Burrow in two games, the Bengals have been much better in pass protection over the last two weeks giving up just one sack.
The only area that hasn’t quite clicked yet for the Bengals on offense is the run game. Cincinnati ranks No. 20 in the NFL averaging 98.0 yards per game on the ground. As teams start to game plan specifically to try and limit what the Bengals do in the passing game, the rushing offense will have to start coming alive. Surprisingly, despite where the Bengals rank in yards per game, Mixon is tied for first in the NFL in rushing yards with 353.
Playing on Thursday night allows the Bengals a mini-bye week before hosting the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 9 and the team needs it from a health standpoint. A few key starters are dealing with what Taylor calls “short-term” injuries.
There’s still three more quarters to go in the 17-game season and based off the way the Bengals have shown through four weeks, there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this Cincinnati team.
“You've got to win anyway it comes at you,” Taylor said. “So, I think it's important for our team to have experienced that in three different ways in the first quarter of the season and know that we're capable of winning any which way and that's going to serve us well as the season goes on.”
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