The Cincinnati Bengals' season has come to an end. For the second consecutive year, the Bengals will miss out on postseason play, despite finishing the campaign with a record of 9-8.
The Bengals did their part down the stretch of the season, winning five straight games to put themselves in position to potentially make the playoffs, but ultimately they didn't get the outside help that they needed.
Broncos secure playoff berth, eliminate Bengals with win over Chiefs
Heading into the final day of the regular season, the Bengals needed the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos, and they also needed the Miami Dolphins to lose to -- or tie with -- the New York Jets. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, the Broncos didn't feel like cooperating, as they pulled out a dominant 38-0 victory over Kansas City's backups.
So now, the Broncos will get the final Wild Card spot in the AFC, while the offseason is officially underway for Cincinnati. It's an unfortunate end to the season for the Bengals, but they don't have anyone to blame but themselves given their slow start.
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The Bengals went 0-3 to start the season, and they sat at 4-8 before winning their final five games to finish at 9-8. In hindsight, their Week 1 loss to the lowly New England Patriots was especially egregious. The Patriots won just four total games on the year, and their head coach was fired immediately after their season ended. It wasn't a game the Bengals should have lost, and had they won just that particular game, they probably wouldn't be on the outside of the playoff picture.
Unfortunately, slow starts have become a trend for the Bengals under head coach Zac Taylor, as they started 0-2 in each of the past three seasons. They were ultimately able to turn it on this season, but they still fell short. Moving forward, the Bengals have to figure out a way to get off to better starts.
This is the first time in Joe Burrow's five-year career that the Bengals have failed to qualify for postseason play when he was healthy for the entire season. The past two times that the team missed the playoffs, Burrow suffered a season-ending injury. The star quarterback certainly can't be happy with the way things turned out this season.
Not only was Burrow healthy, he turned in one of the best seasons from a quarterback in recent memory as he thew for 4,918 yards and 43 touchdowns while completing 70 percent of his passes. Unfortunately, his stellar play wasn't enough to lift the Bengals to a playoff berth.
The silver lining for the Bengals is that Burrow is still just 28 years old, and thus still has a whole lot of elite football ahead of him. The top task for Cincinnati's front office moving forward is to build a better team around Burrow, on both sides of the ball, so that his excellence isn't again wasted.