Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor didn't mince words when asked if he believes his team is still a playoff-caliber team following a two-game skid at Paul Brown Stadium.
"Absolutely," Taylor said when asked if he thinks his team is a playoff team. "I don't think anybody wants to play us, quite frankly. And we haven't won all the games that we felt like we should've won. But I think our guys have a ton of confidence, and people see what they're about, see the talent we've got in all three phases, and see that we're going to fight to the last second."
Taylor is right to some degree. As San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said prior to the Week 14 matchup, the Bengals' offense led by Joe Burrow can be viewed as "scary." Cincinnati ranks No. 7 in points per game with 27.2 points per game and Burrow is on a roll when throwing wide receiver Tee Higgins' way currently. Over the last three games, Higgins has recorded 100 receiving yards. Rookie Ja'Marr Chase proved despite having drop issues in his first season in the NFL – he leads the league in drops according to Pro Football Focus –he can still wreck games. Then there's veteran Tyler Boyd who is Burrow's security blanket on third down.
And then there's running back Joe Mixon who looked to be who the player the Bengals would rely on most in the month of December. That hasn't been the case as Mixon was responsible for the game-changing turnover against the Chargers and was a non-factor against the 49ers with 18 carries for 58 yards.
Doc's Morning Line: Whom do the Bengals want to be? Zac Taylor needs to have the answer.
Defensively, the Bengals are a mid-tier level defense. Cincinnati ranks No. 17 in scoring defense giving up 22.5 points per game. There's only been a handful of games where the Bengals have looked completely dismantled on defense. The loss of of linebacker Logan Wilson certainly hurts but for the most part, the Bengals' defense has been good enough to give the team a chance to win each week.
So where's the disconnect?
The themes in the Bengals' losses in 2021
While the Bengals' six losses could all be told by a different story, there's two common themes in all of them: Slow starts on offense and turnovers. The Bengals are averaging 12.3 points per game in the first half. Cincinnati ranks No. 25 in the NFL in giveaways with 21. The lack of productivity on offense in the first half and the turnovers directly corelate with the Bengals record.
Taylor is a third-year head coach and the two oldest players on his team are Clark Harris and Kevin Huber, the long snapper and punter. The Bengals are very much a young team from top to bottom that find themselves in a hole they need to find a way out of.
NFL playoff pi:Where the Bengals sit in the AFC playoff picture following Week 14 loss to 49ers
Prior to the Week 13 and 14 home games, Cincinnati was as high as the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoff picture. Those two losses alone put the Bengals on the outside looking in if the postseason started this weekend as they are currently the No. 9 seed.
With four games to go, Taylor and his team will have every opportunity to prove they are a playoff-caliber team. The Bengals still have a chance to win the AFC North with games against the Ravens and Browns still on the schedule. Likely, the Bengals will have to win three out of their last four games to get in.
But before the Bengals can even think about the postseason, they have to learn how to stack wins starting with their upcoming game in Denver on Sunday.
"Take all these lessons we learned from these tight games and find ways to finish these games off," Taylor said of how his team can make a postseason run. "Losing in the manner that we have and we fight hard and make it a good game but you got to find a way to finish off these close games."
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