09-14-2015, 02:57 PM
(09-14-2015, 02:39 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: When has this division ever looked this weak? Pittsburgh doesn't have a defense anymore. They were ranked 1st, 1st, 13th, 18th the last 4 years. The Ravens defense is going to take a big blow with Suggs and Ngata gone. Plus their offense most likely isn't going to be as good. This is the best opportunity the Bengals have had to sweep the division in a while.
A sweep is just really hard to imagine when we haven't been able to muster up more than 3 wins in this division in any of the last 4 seasons.
Baltimore's defense still looks fine on paper. I can't see them falling off a cliff because of Suggs but that loss is definitely a bad thing for them and a good thing for the rest of the division. Pittsburgh had their worst defense in quite some time last year and they swept us. The Browns don't just lay down for the Bengals, we've lost some nasty games to that team in recent memory.
I'm usually pretty pessimistic when it comes to picking us to win games in the division because of our recent track record, but this is the year I'd be confident saying that I believe we'll finally have a winning record in the AFCN with this core of players. I do think 4-2 is more realistic than a sweep though, I can see us splitting with Pittsburgh/Baltimore and just crushing the Browns this year in both games. Or even something crazy like we drop 2 to Baltimore as a reversal of last year and then go 4-0 against Pittsburgh/Cleveland. I don't know man, anything can happen in the NFL, but it seems really hard for me to type that we go 2-0 against Pittsburgh, Baltimore, AND Cleveland and for me to be serious about it.
