Emphatic three wins revive Cincinnati Bengals playoff chance – NFL News
Courtesy of their three consecutive wins, the Cincinnati Bengals are back in the playoff race, tied 6-5 with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the American Football Conference (AFC) North, well behind the division leaders the Baltimore Ravens who are atop the American
Football Conference (AFC) North standings with 9-2.
The Bengals, who were ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the second round’s minnows the Houston Texans in 2011, lost four games after a couple of wins earlier this season. They then went on secure three thumbing victories to match with the Steelers
for the last wildcard opportunity in the division.
Given the Steelers are struggling on their end to successfully cover for absence of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and some other key players, the Bengals have a chance to ride on the winning momentum and the way they played against the Oakland Raiders last
weekend, they have sounded their intention to be very clear in this regard.
Lately, the team have built their success on a strong offensive performance, which much to the criticism of coach Marvin Lewis lacked the sparkle earlier in the season so much that it forced the coach to issue a stern warning to the offensive line players.
Now the coach is happy the way team have responded to his demand of a better play and said they will see how they progress in the rest of the season to make the playoff opportunity to be more realistic for them.
Marvin said:
"The anticipation comes down to these last five (games) now and what they mean and how important they are. We're in OK position. We're not in great position, but we're in OK position. And we've got to improve upon it each and every week."
Quarterback Andy Dalton has noted the progress from four games down in a row to stay in the playoff contention as a welcome turnaround.
According to him:
"Even with the four-game losing streak, we never felt like we were out of the playoff race. Now we've just got to keep on playing like we're playing and everything will fall into place."
A couple of more wins are likely to give the Bengals a sense of direction and confirm if they hold a clear chance to playoffs.
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