Cincinnati Bengals: 4 things we learned from Week 1 loss at Seattle
By Steve Rivera
Moral victories don’t count in the ”win” column of the NFL. In Seattle, against what will likely be a playoff team, the Cincinnati Bengals left a win on the field, on the road, against what on paper is a better team. While Cincinnati won the stat sheet, they didn’t win the game. It was a loss. Call it whatever you want, but the Bengals lost a football game they should have won.
Will that happen again? It could. The Bengals will play 15 more games this NFL season and feeling good about the effort and close games that are a loss don’t do much for an organization needing to turn the corner.
Having said all that, maybe the Bengals will surprise the NFL world. While Week 1 can often be a poor indicator of what’s to come, you have to feel good about the Bengals performing as well as they did on the road. When looking at the AFC North, only Baltimore won on Sunday, while both Cleveland and Pittsburgh looked bad in their respective losses. By contrast, Cincinnati went to Seattle and lost a game that they absolutely could have won.
Next. Even in a loss, Cincinnati was the better team. dark
They won’t get such a free pass again. Feeling good about a loss in Week 1 is one thing. If it becomes a running theme, criticism will be fair.