Roughly a month ago, a reeling Cincinnati Bengals club unexpectedly rebounded from a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers to get back in the playoff mix via three consecutive wins.
Now Bengals head coach Zac Taylor hopes the same thing happening again falls into the expected category.
Here the Bengals are again after a devasting loss to the Steelers, staring down two must-win games to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“You can look back to how this room was, how the locker room the day after we lost to Pittsburgh the first time, and, there could have easily been a narrative that that this team’s gonna hang it up, and that’s not what happened,” Taylor said. “Instead, three games in a row we played really inspired football and found three wins and we got ourselves back in the hunt. So, we’re no different in the situation right now where we need to be at our best this week against Kansas City, and I’m excited to see these guys respond.”
Of course, last time they were in this spot, the Bengals had the benefit of playing two AFC South teams and a Minnesota team missing its franchise passer.
This time? They need to go on the road and beat Kansas City, then return home and play a Cleveland team with 10 wins already.
Impossible? No, but the repeated allowance of explosive plays to Mason Rudolph by the defense and opposing defenses finally figuring out Jake Browning are two things the Bengals will need to figure out in a hurry in order to have fans experiencing deja vu that could lead to the postseason.
Zac Taylor speaks to the media. https://t.co/XXPRI8lC4f
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 24, 2023
