Bengals hanging around in crowded AFC North standings

The Cincinnati Bengals have limped through what Joe Burrow called the season’s most critical three-game stretch.

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Along the way, they took a loss to the Cleveland Browns, dropping them to 0-3 in the AFC North.

Those divisional standings now create quite a problem for the Bengals:

• Ravens (5-3)
• Bengals (4-4)
• Browns (3-5)
• Steelers (2-6)

While the Bengals are winless over half of their AFC North attempts, the Ravens are perfect at 2-0 and even the Steelers are 1-1. Other tiebreaks come into play in the playoff race besides divisional standings, of course, but it’s an important point nonetheless.

While it’s not a perfect measurement either, it’s worth pointing out the Bengals have the hardest strength of schedule in the division besides the Steelers, with the Ravens coming in as the easiest.

This isn’t to suggest the Bengals can’t still win the division. But it does paint a dire picture where the team would love to have those games against backup or mid-tier quarterbacks from earlier in the season back.