The Cincinnati Bengals seem like a team that won a lot of onlookers over and potentially converted any holdouts after the divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills.
General fan reaction is a good way to gauge such a thing, but so are power rankings.
One set of telling rankings comes from NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus, who jumps the Bengals up from four all the way to No. 1:
“Anybody else starting to get the feeling Joe Burrow is simply not going to be denied this year? Joe Cool 2.0 played quarterback like a man possessed on Sunday in Orchard Park, picking apart the Bills in a resounding 27-10 win that sent Cincinnati back to the AFC Championship Game for the second straight year. Burrow was casually dominant, but he didn’t do it alone: Lou Anarumo’s defense put the feared Buffalo attack in a phone booth, while Cincy’s offensive line — littered with question marks after a rash of injuries — kept Burrow clean and consistently opened big lanes for running back Joe Mixon. “Domination from start to finish,” Burrow said after the win. “That’s what we expected. Job’s not finished.” This is a quarterback and team afraid of no one — including the Chiefs.”
That “Joe Burrow is simply not going to be denied this year” line is probably sweeter for Bengals fans than actually seeing the team listed as the NFL’s best.
Either way, Burrow and Co. won’t enjoy a long stay at the top of rankings such as this if they can’t overcome Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s AFC title game.
Those Chiefs, for what it’s worth, sit fourth in the power rankings behind the last remaining NFC teams, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
