The Cincinnati Bengals trounced the San Francisco 49ers in Week 8, a 31-17 drubbing of a Super Bowl contender on the road in which the offense left roughly 10 points on the board due to mistakes.
It was a statement game for the team coming out of the bye, one that stressed more than anything that Joe Burrow is all the way back to his usual self after the training camp calf injury.
Said statement sent to the rest of the league also happens at an incredibly interesting time given the looming NFL trade deadline and a brutally tough schedule the rest of the way.
Here are some quick takeaways and thoughts on all of these things heading into Week 9.
Time for a trade
Some teams around the league were weighing the decision to act as sellers based on if they won or not in Week 8.
Not so for the Bengals.
A report has already said they don’t plan on making a trade at all. But this feels like when the team should have the pedal to the floor. An interior or versatile pass-rusher to help out Trey Hendrickson would work wonders. Or a tight end would really help the offense, especially after Irv Smith’s lost fumble in the redzone on Sunday. We’re not talking big trades — but even going and getting Hayden Hurst back might be a good idea.
Praise those OTs
How about Orlando Brown Jr. coming back from his injury faster than expected and mostly clamping down on elite pass-rusher Nick Bosa?
And how about Jonah Williams?
The much-maligned Williams has fully embraced and worked out at right tackle. You rarely hear his name now, which, compared to the Bobby Hart days (sorry to make you think of those), really is something. Hard to say if they’ll be able to keep him after this year, but it sure feels like he and Brown are the best tackle duo of the Burrow era and beyond.
Burrow isn't the only Joe excelling
Joe Burrow looks great!
And so does Joe Mixon. We’ve consistently written that this season has been the best Mixon has looked in years. That was on full display even more than usual on Sunday as he ran 16 times for 87 yards and a score (5.4 average) and caught three passes. This in large part had to do with the schematic decision to start going under center more. About that…
Time to praise Zac Taylor
…those changes were brilliant. Zac Taylor and the coaching staff just greatly expanded the playbook and outdueled one of the NFL’s best offensive minds on the opposite sideline.
We’ve speculated before that these changes might’ve been installed over the summer if Burrow hadn’t suffered that calf injury. Maybe not. Either way, they’re in now and the Bengals are immensely more difficult to prepare for and stop each week.
In this thing
Don’t look now but the…
- Chiefs
- Browns
- Steelers
- Colts
- Texans
…all lost on Sunday, which impacts standings top to bottom and the wild card race. The Ravens at 6-2 keep winning, leaving the Bengals at 4-3 with the Browns and Steelers sitting on the same record.
Cincinnati is still very much in this thing, especially with four division games left.
As planned
Limping to 3-3 by the bye wasn’t the best-case scenario, but with how limited Burrow was, it sure wasn’t the worst result, either. And now the plan is starting to unfold — they’ve shown that Burrow is all the way up and the offense is evolving. There are still things to clean up on both sides of the ball. But this is starting to look like the team that rattled off nine in a row last year and came within a play or two of a second consecutive Super Bowl appearance. Plus, this might be a taste of what Burrow can do behind the best line of his career, which has to be pretty exciting for fans.
