Close To A Championship?

[*PhilHos*]

(09-21-2017, 11:47 AM)thillan Wrote: The 2015 playoff game against the Steelers is easily the most painful loss I've ever watched. I will never forget how upset I was, and how much my mood had changed within a span of just a few minutes. I jumped up and down full of excitement on Burfict's pick.. and then could just feel the season ending as soon as the penalty flag was thrown as AB hit the ground.

It's because of this game that I'm still split on my feelings of Burfict, and still don't like Pacman on the team.

Heck, before this, the most annoying loss was probably the memory of "Stokley! Down the sideline!"

BUT, I never got the chance to discuss this topic, and thought it might be kinda nice considering where our franchise is now. So, let's say Hill didn't screw us over, and the defense didn't completely melt down.. do you think we could have made it?

The 2015 Bengals team is the ONLY Bengals team that I confidently felt could go to the big game. That defense was BRUTAL, and man could we put points on the board. Dalton was set to come back the next game (I believe), and he was a front-runner for MVP at one point.

What do you think? Would we have made the big game? If so, do you think we could have won?

And if you don't think we would've made it, why not? Who would've ended our season?

Dalton was not ready to come back the next week. I'm sure we could've rushed him back, but I think the earliest he could've reasonably come back would have been if we made it to the AFCCG. Considering that AJM was not lights out, I think we should've beaten the Steelers and we would've lost the following week without a healthy Dalton.