05-01-2022, 10:33 AM
(05-01-2022, 10:11 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: The Ravens are still a good team and variance happens. Yes, Cincinnati demolished them last year but that doesn't speak for this year. Did the Bengals improve enough to overcome the deficits they apparently had against the Jets and Bears? What about the Jaguars? They barely scraped by them. Perhaps a better question would be did the Bengals do enough to overcome the Browns? Cleveland banished Cincinnati to the shadow realm, in Cincinnati, with a mediocre & injured QB. Now, they have added a Pro-Bowl and an All-Pro contender type player at QB.
My point is that it isn't linear like this. I think Cincinnati is the best team in the division, but they could go 2-4 just as easily as they could go 6-0. Baltimore and Cleveland are good teams and just because Cincinnati is better doesn't mean they will win.
I agree with the Browns part for sure. They demolished the Bengals at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The Bengals replaced 2/3 of their o-line, so that should theoretically close the gap a bit on offense. Vs Cleveland's offense is where I'm a bit more concerned. The Bengals d-line was far from bad, and their linebackers and secondary can tackle. They still go chewed up by Chubb and the Cleveland o-line. Add Watson to the mix and it's going to get even more dicey.
As far as the Ravens and the division in general go, I respect them, but we're at a point now where the Bengals have something that the rest of the division does not. There's an elite quarterback on the roster with a bona-fide once-in-a-generation deep threat to throw to and complimentary players to make defenses pay when they shift coverage to Chase. They can score extremely fast when they are clicking. They can run up the score on great days, and they are tenacious enough to come from being behind multiple scores quick. This is the kind of team you need to go deep in the playoffs and compete vs other similar teams, not just weather the division.
The other factor here is, and I think this gets lost due to the crazy run last year, these guys are just babies in terms of their NFL experience. Burrow has basically had a year with no training camp and year with a very limited one, followed by a third of a season where he was being used more conservatively due to his injury. That should be out the window in 2022. I think they can get even better chemistry-wise. Burrow is the type of player that although he's terrific now, the sky is the limit. The more he sees on NFL fields on Sundays, the more dangerous he becomes. Add that to the level of confidence gained in the playoff run, and I think the Bengals are a team to fear for the foreseeable future, especially if you're a team like the Ravens that lacks the offensive weaponry to keep up and the boundary corners to prevent elite weapons from getting loose in an impactful way.
