After the Cincinnati Bengals Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport had takeaways from every game played for each team.
After the Bengals fell 37-17, Davenport concluded that their slow start would be too much for them to overcome to be back in the mix for Super Bowl contention this season, citing issues with the defense and the run game as the best evidence for that.
Here’s some of what Davenport wrote:
Cincinnati still has time to make a postseason push, but no one should expect the Bengals to be in the Super Bowl mix this year. They still have yet to play well on both sides of the ball in the same game, and while Burrow is healthy, even he can’t overcome the many flaws the Bengals possess.
Now, sitting with a 3-5 record and three games behind the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, it is going to be a big uphill climb for the Bengals, but it’s something they have done before, after starting slow multiple times.
There are still nine games to go on the schedule for Cincinnati, so the second half of the season could end up being a completely different story, and NFL experts could be kicking themselves later down the road for doubting what this team could do. But the Bengals have certainly put themselves in a tough spot.
