Playing supposedly bad teams a question..

[George Cantstandya]

Honest question.  Does it seem the Bengals have a have a harder time playing teams that are considered bad and if so why?  A look at the games so far this season:

VS. Vikings (currently 3-4) Win 27-24 in overtime. First game of the season though with limited preseason.
VS. Bears (currently 3-5) Loss 20-17
VS. Steelers  (4-3)  Win 24-10 against a so far decent team.
VS. Jaguars (currently 1-6)  Win 24-21 took a last second field goal.
VS. Packers (currently 7-1) Loss 25-22  The overtime kicking disaster bowl. 
VS. Lions (currently 0-8)  Win 34-11.  Big win but the Lions are super horrible.  They got humiliated by the 3-5 Eagles this week.
VS. Raven (currently 5-2) Win, 41-17 crushed a very good team.  
VS. Jets (currently 2-5) Loss, 34-31 down to the wire.

So as you can see the close games were against teams with losing records with exception to the game against the Packers.  The Bengals are 3-2 against teams with a losing record and two of those wins went down to the wire.   Against teams with a winning record aside from the Packers game the Bengals won by a good margin.  

So my question is if this is just a fluke based on a small sample size or is something else going on here?  Maybe it is parity?  Do you think it is over confidence when going against a team that is projected to lose?  Or maybe a bad game plan and coaching?  Perhaps some mix of both?   I'm interested in what you all think.  Thanks.

[BigPapaKain]

Even bad NFL teams are NFL teams. The worst guy on the worst team is still probably better than the best player at any other level of a comparable position.

You take any NFL teams lightly and they'll make you pay.

[KillerGoose]

The Vikings are actually a decent team, despite having a losing record.the Jags, Jets and Bears are all legitimately bad teams, though. Those games sting, but it is an example of the volatility in the NFL.

[Tony]

Its crazy, they just didnt lose to the jets, the gave upmcrazy numbers to a QB that never played and he just lit the Bengals defense up. I could see some fluky loss. But theu got their ass handed to them...

[*Synric*]

Playing on the road is tough in the NFL. The Bengals just had 3 road games in a row and went 2-1. The Good news is they only have 3 road games left and 6 home games.

[HarleyDog]

(11-01-2021, 06:01 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: The Vikings are actually a decent team, despite having a losing record.the Jags, Jets and Bears are all legitimately bad teams, though. Those games sting, but it is an example of the volatility in the NFL.

Volatile yes, but struggling and losing to both is bad and may say something about game preparation. It's quite possible we play down to other teams levels. IIRC, Marvin had that issue too. I want us to be a team that puts the foot on the gas on the opening kickoff and is not afraid to win 50-3. We were horrible in the middle yesterday too. Believe me, I'm not bashing the Bengals. I think they are capable of so much more but one bad game against a bad team and losing is tolerable. Doing it twice in the first half of the season adds questions. I don't care what anyone says, I believe these guys looked ahead to Cleveland and thought this game would be easy. They fed into the media hype all week and convinced themselves they were the best in the NFL. Swagger is good, ego is not. So hopefully this loss wakes them up and we can move forward in strong fashion.

(11-01-2021, 06:13 PM)Synric Wrote: Playing on the road is tough in the NFL. The Bengals just had 3 road games in a row and went 2-1. The Good news is they only have 3 road games left and 6 home games.

I didn't realize this. Thanks for the info. This is truly good news in light of yesterday's outing. I think we wake up and beat the hell out of Cleveland this week. I feel these guys genuinely feel horrible about the loss and each player feels responsible. I hope the coaches feel that way too.

[Sled21]

(11-01-2021, 06:02 PM)Tony Wrote: Its crazy, they just didnt lose to the jets, the gave upmcrazy numbers to a QB that never played and he just lit the Bengals defense up. I could see some fluky loss. But theu got their ass handed to them...

31-34....Wow, what a beat down, that's really getting your ass handed to you. Why do you even post in the Bengals fan section of this bulletin board?

[George Cantstandya]

Thanks all for your thoughts on this so far.  I just find it interesting that the Bengals have played really good games against statically decent (Steelers) to really good teams (Ravens and Packers) and then struggle against teams that are sub-.500 (Vikings, Bears, Jaguars and Jets).  

But the Jets are kind of odd I guess. If you look at their two wins they came after they got beat up (again small sample size).  

Week 3 Jets lose to the Broncos 26-0.  The next week they beat the Titans.
Week 7 Jets get burned bad by the Patriots  54-13.  Then next week, well we know what happened.  

So maybe they play better mad after being beat up?   With all that being said I hope the Bengals now have a chip on their shoulder and are pissed off about that loss to an inferior team.   I hope they take that anger into next week and humiliate the Browns.