This season might be toast

[*ochocincos*]

(11-01-2022, 12:36 AM)Trademark Wrote: Played the weakest part of the schedule, still have a couple of weak games coming up but this team is 4-4 and 0-3 in the division. No Chase, no Chido, no Reader, what a disaster of a season, tonight may have been the final nail in the coffin. Might be time to trade some players for picks, this team has so many holes and the OL still sucks. I hope they prove me wrong and get on a hot streak, but this is the first time this season that this team has been completely dominated...

I'm as big of a realist/skeptic as any, but I didn't think the team would make it to the playoffs last season after falling to the 49ers in mid-December, becoming 7-6, and having the Ravens, Chiefs, Broncos, and Browns still on the schedule.
They showed a pattern of never winning more than two games in a row, so I thought that team was going to end up 9-8 or 8-9.
They end up surprising everyone (or at least me) and go on a 3-game win streak to win the division.

For the remainder of this season, I have the Bengals beating:
CAR
PIT
NE
maybe TB

If that's all they get, its a 7-win or 8-win season.
However, we saw last year that they were able to pull out some wins many didn't think would happen (specifically KC and TEN).

Unfortunately, with the injuries to some key players, I think you are right in that they aren't likely to make the playoffs with their current team.
But if you trade away any players, they 100% won't.
If you add another WR and CB, they might have a chance.

I think that given the bye is just a week away, any new player they add won't be familiar enough with the scheme for CAR. However, CAR is probably the worst 1-2 teams remaining on the schedule right now, and the Bengals should (keyword) be able to handle them without the added reinforcement(s) being ramped up. Then they can have the bye week to get familiar with the offense/defense and go into the PIT game familiar.