It turns out that franchise legend Andrew Whitworth feels the same way about the Cincinnati Bengals as most fans.
The short of it? Defense improves…anything is possible.
The Bengals technically aren’t eliminated from playoff contention, but things look terrible at 4-7 despite five AFC opponents left on the schedule.
Whitworth, commenting under a stat-ranking analysis by The Atheltic’s Paul Dehner Jr., summed things up quite well: “Said this when we were there for a preseason game. Just need defense to be middle of the road. That’s it. And they a SB contender”
Apparently, it’s just not that easy. As the numbers show, the Bengals rank 26th in points per drive and 28th in EPA per play. They even rank 31st in red zone percentage. The unit coughs up 26.9 points per game on average, a bottom-five number.
The Bengals have a bye to attempt a fix, but also just lost another starting cornerback for the season. More and more, it’s starting to look like a season of major what if? questions.
