No way. This team was very inconsistent when healthy and now they are a mess.

My heart and gut says hell yes, my eyes are not as confident.

saying yes the Bengals do make the playoffs as a Wildcard

Yet it will take a herculean team effort going forward since the Bengals a walking M*A*S*H unit right now.

The defense has carried the team so far and now the offense is going to have to shoulder the load to make this possible.

(11-04-2022, 07:53 PM)Go Cards Wrote: My heart and gut says hell yes, my eyes are not as confident.

saying yes the Bengals do make the playoffs as a Wildcard

Yet it will take a herculean team effort going forward since the Bengals a walking M*A*S*H unit right now.

The defense has carried the team so far and now the offense is going to have to shoulder the load to make this possible.

I went with no, mostly because of one of the reasons you mentioned. With the amount of injuries we've sustained I think it will be hard to win out. 

If we were healthy I would have voted yes but we have a lot to try to overcome. 

Nope, too many injuries. Honestly might not be a bad thing to have a terrible season. Draft a top player to help the team for next season. This team is lacking depth at positions

My instinct tells me we don't make the playoffs. We have barely looked like that good a team for 8 weeks of the season. We're starting to have misfortune with injuries. We seem to be on the losing side of the close games. We just don't look like a playoff team so far, and we don't seem to have to fortune necessary either.

Whatever my gut instinct says however, I've done a full season predictor, and I did have us as the #7 seed (got in at 10-7, with our remaining losses being Browns, Chiefs and Bills). However, I'm starting to think that the injuries we have on defence will severely weaken the team, moreso than maybe I thought. We'll see.

I 100% see absolutely no way Baltimore doesn't win the division. Their schedule propels them to the division title with relative ease imo.

(11-03-2022, 05:12 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Ah, the perfect thread to divide the lines between the optimists and the pessimists!

Right, and you know the fools will look back at this and say "YOU DIDN'T THINK WE'D MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, YOU'RE NOT A BENGALS FAN!!". There are plenty of them on this forum.

If Ja'marr and chido weren't injured I would have given us a better chance. Buffalo probably won't play our W16 game because they may have locked everything up and the ending Ravens game may matter. To have to lean on Mixon without Ja'marr is a joke to me. It's amazing we couldn't run the ball with the stacked WRs we have.

My gut says yes. My mind says people are over-reacting to one loss. My mind also says this team has to improve in some key areas.

I think people are forgetting that we just won 2 in a row where we scored at ease. The Saints have a really good defense too.

I think we should win the next two for sure. If we don't, we probably don't make the playoffs. But I think we win those first two.

Then we have the Titans followed by the Chiefs. Tough matchups and revenge games for the opponents. I would hope we could win one of these but we could lose both.

Then we have the Browns again and we'll just figure this is a loss because of the rough matchup it is for us. Although we could find a way to score on them and win the game. But we'll call this a loss for now.

So that would be 3-2 in the next 5 games.

Next is Tampa and New England. These should be tough games despite the record of the opponent. Great defenses. We'll say they drop the Bucs game and beat New England.

That makes us 4-3, or 8-7 total.

Then we have the Bills and Ravens to end the season. I think we are hoping the Bills are resting starters in this one. But generally teams wait until the last game of the season to rest starters. I say we lose to the Bills and beat the Ravens.

So I'm looking at a 9-8 record. Throw in Joe Brr with some unexpected heroics and I think that means we win another unexpected game somewhere to get to 10 wins.

I'm not thinking of W's until the ground game is solidified and consistent and pose as a viable threat to be used in play-action. Being one-dimensional is not a recipe for success.

I hope we make it to the playoffs by some miracle,but,NO.

My gut tells me we will not make the playoffs this year and will be lucky to be a 9-8 team. This is just not our year. I think we may actually beat the Chiefs and Bills in regular season but still fall short. Hope I'm wrong.

The remaining schedule is tough. We get a couple of unfamiliar foes which is often a good thing with this team.

We get two out of the three remaining division games at home, another good thing.

I think we definitely had a good shot but losing our best cover CB is going to be a big deal. Major loss!! If one of the young guys steps up, maybe we still have a chance.

That said, my gut tells me that we may just barely miss out. That schedule is still brutal, especially with the injury cloud hanging over the team.

No chance, but that should give Bengaldom hope, as I said the same thing at this point last year!

I don't know.

I still think the team has enough talent to get in the door. You always have a chance when you have an elite qb under center.

The issues the team faces right now are more related to scheme and attrition as a result of injury than anything. The first can be fixed, and there have been moments where it looked fixed in recent games. The Browns are an all-around matchup nightmare for the Bengals, so I throw that embarrassment out.

The injury angle is working against the Bengals right now, but there's a lot of football to be played. Other contenders will likely face similar obstacles and the outcomes can look much different in a matter of just a few weeks.

If they lose either of the next 2, I'm in the no category. They need to handle business vs the Panthers and Steelers to stay alive. If they are 6-4 leaving Pittsburgh, I think all bets are on the table. If they are 5-5 or 6-4, the draft forum is going to get a lot of traffic around Thanksgiving time.

ask me after the bye

My logic says no.
We stayed VERY healthy last year, playing good teams plagued by injuries. This year we are plagued by injuries so nahhhhh..

Two-to-one against?  That Cleveland game must have had more of an impact than I expected.  Should be an uptick in positivity after the W today.

I still believe.

(11-06-2022, 12:10 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: Two-to-one against?  That Cleveland game must have had more of an impact than I expected.  Should be an uptick in positivity after the W today.

For me it is far more about injuries than the current record and the abysmal play against the Browns.  

Stefanski is Zac Taylor's Shanahan. I wouldn't base any prediction off our performance against the Browns

(11-03-2022, 02:30 PM)Murdock2420 Wrote: My gut says they limp in as the 7th seed.

Division winners: Titans, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills.

Wild Cards: Dolphins, Chargers, Bengals.

The real threat is the Patriots since the hoodie can never be ruled out.

Before anyone says "What about the Jets?"  I have zero faith that team continues to win after losing their star rookie RB and getting slapped by New England. Their QB is still "seeing ghosts" and they just aren't a good team. I think the 7th seed is either Cincy or New England. Very little other competition in the AFC.

Jets beat Cleveland
Jets beat Steelers
Jets beat Ravens

So who did we lose to again?