2. Are the Bengals back?
The Bengals started off their season with a 1-3 record but have won the last three games to bring them to a 4-3 record heading into Week 9. A slow start isn’t foreign to Cincinnati as they began the 2022 season with a 1-2 record before turning things around.
This season the Bengals were dealing with injuries to start, which included players like Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins. But as of late, Cincinnati looks like they’re back to their winning ways as they’ve scored more than 30 points in two of their last three.
To Bills players and staff, it doesn’t matter what the Bengals record is because they know the roster is filled with lots of talent.
“We prepare for them at their absolute best,” assistant head coach and defensive line coach Eric Washington said. “We won’t look at records and we know that they are a potent and powerful offense led by their quarterback and some of the exceptional skill players. So, we’re going to prepare for what we know they’re capable of…so we won’t concern ourselves with their record. We know what Cincinnati is capable of and fortunately, we have a couple of recent experiences with them that we can look back on and use to get ourselves ready to go.”
In the first four weeks of the season the Bengals were averaging 12.25 points per game (31st in the NFL), 236 total yards per game (32nd), 166 passing yards per game (29th) and were scoring touchdowns in the red zone 50% of the time (tied for 20th).
In their last three wins they’re looking a lot better as they’ve been averaging 27.33 points per game (t-4th), 331.3 total yards per game (15th), 240.3 passing yards per game (12th), scoring touchdowns in the red zone 66.7% of the time (t-5th) and have a +5 turnover margin (2nd).
ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky believes the Bengals offense is back and here to stay based off how they’ve played in the last few weeks, especially in their win against the 49ers.
“The overwhelming thing that stood out were four or five snaps that Joe had to go create,” Orlovsky said of their Week 8 win on One Bills Live. “They ran quarterback draw with him, he got out of a crazy sack, he made three or four plays with his feet…The calf injury for Joe affected everybody. It didn’t just affect the quarterback. Do you know how hard it is to play offensive line when everybody on the defense knows the quarterback’s going to be six yards behind the center and that’s it? (You) can’t move.”
