The Bengals Played a Really Tough Schedule

[*ochocincos*]

(01-09-2024, 03:15 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Yyyyyeah, it's not their out of division opponents that are a problem as they went 8-3 this year and would've been 9-2 if Boyd catches that third down pass. They went 10-1 outside of the AFC North last season with their only loss was 20-17 in week two at Dallas when Burrow was still adjusting to no pre-season and lack of strength from the appendectomy.

Two things:
1) The Bengals morphed their team to try to beat the likes of the Bills and Chiefs moving forward, which are different than the AFC North teams. Whether we like it or not, it's not going to magically morph back in just one offseason. Winning in the division is still going to be difficult.
2) The divisional games are only 35% of the total games. So while those games are impactful, it's still possible to go winless in the division and make the playoffs (and possibly even win the division).

The bigger detriment this season, IMO, is Burrow really only being healthy for about 5 games, which was Arizona up through Houston, where the Bengals went 4-1.
Outside of that window, their record was 5-7, 4 of which had a recovering-but-limited Burrow.

Bottom line - I think people are making a bit too big of a deal of the 1-5 divisional record, as I think the Bengals were more affected by Burrow's injury/recovery. Had he been healthy for the whole season, I do think the division would have been 3-3 if not better.