The Cincinnati Bengalsare off to their best start through five games since the 2021 Super Bowl season.
And they reached that mark by actually running the ballmore in a 31-24 road victory against the hapless Miami Dolphins on Oct. 11, improving Cincinnati’s record to 3-2 entering the bye week.
That’s all positive news.
The not-so-good news: The Bengals aren’t as good as many thought they were going to be.
They are OK. Maybe wild card-team OK. But the Bengals seem to be a long way from the Super Bowl contender they thought they were going to be with a healthy Joe Burrow and a rebuilt defense.
It can’t be stressed enough that being OK just isn’t OK around here anymore. Burrow said so himself. That was the crux of Burrow’s championship-or-bust message
on Aug. 20. Yeah, I know I keep bringing up Burrow’s comments from his training camp press conference that day.
But that set the expectations for this season – and the Bengals have to get a lot better if they want to be considered a legitimate contender in the AFC alongside Buffalo, Kansas City, Baltimore and Jacksonville.
It's difficult to get too excited about a win against the winless Dolphins. Yes, it's the NFL. A win is a win, survive and get on to next week. But the Dolphins are the worst team in the league, and they've let everyone know they're in full rebuilding mode.
It's concerning that the Bengals gave up 217 rushing yards to a team that came in averaging 104 on the ground. That's not going to be good enough for the Bengals defense against the contenders. Buffalo, Kansas City and Baltimore all entered the weekend ranked in the top 5 in the league in rushing. The Bengals' next game is in Baltimore on Oct. 25.
Fielding punts and kickoffs must also get better. Dohnte Meyers fielded a kickoff late in the game near the sideline, couldn't keep his balance and then stepped out of bounds at the Bengals' 4-yard line. Cincinnati led 28-18 at the time, and no harm was done. But against a good team, that can't happen.
Remember, it was a muffed punt and a roughing penalty on the punter that cost the Bengals in the loss to Pittsburgh on Sept. 27. Thought self-inflicted special teams mistakes had been cleaned up.
Is this being too nit-picky? Maybe so. But the standard is supposed to be a Super Bowl this year. That's what everyone expects after Burrow said: "This is the year. I’m tired of saying next year, next year, next year. This is it. Your life is too short to keep pushing things down the road."
Everyone should be hanging on those words. No one is expecting perfection. But they expect the Bengals to be playing at the same level as the Bills, Chiefs and Jaguars.
A positive takeaway from Miami is the Bengals rushed for 119 yards after gaining only 23 on the ground in the Oct. 4 loss to Jacksonville. The Bengals had a season-high 31 rushing attempts. The performance could go a long way to helping to transform an offense that has relied way too much on the pass for most of eighth-year coach Zac Taylor's tenure in Cincinnati.
The Bengals spent the week focusing on balancing out their offense. Sounds like it was a challenging week. Center Ted Karras told reporters it was an "edgy week."
Culture change is hard. This is good for the Bengals. It's how they're going to grow. It's good for Burrow, who needs to stop trying to be the hero by passing all the time. It's good for Taylor, who needs a balanced offense to likely save his job.
And if the Bengals are going to turn into Super Bowl contenders coming out of the bye week and down the stretch of the season, it's a mix of passing and running that should put them on the same level as the Bills, Chiefs, Ravens and Jaguars.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals OK. Long way from Super Bowl standard | Williams
