2021 season review for Cincinnati Bengals at the BYE week

What an interesting season it’s been for the Cincinnati Bengals nine games into the year.

The Bengals are in the midst of their bye week, catching their breath before finishing the regular season with eight games remaining.  At 5-4, Cincy has experienced the positive and negative sides of the NFL: a league with a week-to-week nature.

The Who Dey faithful were atop of the world after the Bengals began the year at 5-2, holding the top spot in both the AFC North and AFC conference. The stripes have not had near the same success over their last two games losing to both the Jets and Browns.

At this point, has this been a good or bad season for Cincinnati? Considering this team wasn’t expected to take a jump until next year, it has been a surprising and strong season nine games into the year.

Still, their recent play has been extremely frustrating and unpleasant—the 41-16 loss to the Browns was flat out embarrassing—but the good outweighs the bad so far. We cannot overlook the wins against the Vikings, Steelers, and Ravens. While it probably should have been a win, Cincy’s close loss to the Packers was also a solid performance.

Cincinnati has been a tale of two tapes over the last month. Several issues have been present all season long while other Bengals have performed at a high level on a game-to-game basis.

Breaking down good and bad from Cincinnati Bengals

Individual performances from offensive players like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Joe Mixon have been exceptional. Burrow, the second-year QB, has been very good for the majority of the season. Chase as a rookie has lit up the league and even broken records, he certainly looks worthy of the fifth overall pick. Mixon is performing like a top 10 running back in the NFL, although his production may not be the best thanks to subpar run-blocking.

Focusing on the defense, Trey Hendrickson appears to be worth his large contract. Chidobe Awuzie has consistently been a lockdown cornerback. Logan Wilson has shined at times, shoring up the linebacker unit.

Problems that have spanned across nine games are also present and must be solved as soon as possible.

For instance, the interior o-line (primarily at center and right guard) continues to be extremely inconsistent. Thankfully, the offensive tackles Jonah Williams and Riley Reiff have added some stability.

Also, the play of Jessie Bates has been disappointing coming off his elite 2020 season. Lastly, the second corner spot is becoming an issue as Trae Waynes continues to deal with his hamstring injury. Eli Apple held up well for a while, but that has flipped over the last two weeks.

Even players that have been reliable have struggled in the last two games.

The defensive tackles have dominated in the run game most of the season, that has not been the case recently. The defensive line has been manhandled and tackling by the entire defense has been unacceptable. This has to change fast or the run defense that has been elite for the most part will only wither away. Good luck being a good defensive unit if the run cannot be stopped.

Furthermore, turnovers for the offense are becoming an obvious concern. Burrow is too aggressive at times and needs to be fine with moving on to the next play. The ball cannot be forced every time because then pivotal turnovers occur, like Denzel Ward’s game-swinging pick-six that set the tone for the 41-16 loss to the Browns.

This BYE week comes at the perfect time for the Bengals to gather themselves. Ever since the huge Ravens game, Cincinnati has simply played poorly (especially the defense). Now is the time to identify the issues and fix them.

Overall, Cincy has undergone a good season so far, but now they are in a make-or-break situation. Is this team really worthy of a playoff run, or were they pretenders seven games into the season?

The Bengals have to prove themselves once again, which will be difficult with the Las Vegas Raiders being the next opponent.