3 concerning (and 1 reassuring) takeaways from Bengals' loss over Texans

Concerning: Bengals all alone in the AFC North basement

While the Ravens lost despite holding a 24-point lead over the Browns, they're still 7-3 and at the top of the division. The Browns won that game and moved to 6-3 and both of these teams have tiebreaker wins over Cincinnati. The Steelers also won their game to move to 6-3.

That means that, at 5-4, the Bengals are all by themselves in the AFC North cellar. They play the Ravens in four days but that game isn't nearly as important as it would have been had the Bengals been able to win their game on Sunday. They'd have been 6-3 with the same number of losses as the Ravens with a chance to hand Baltimore their fourth loss.

It definitely felt as though the Bengals were looking ahead to that Baltimore game and maybe that's why they ended up falling short to the Texans. Or maybe -- just maybe -- the Texans are a good football team and will be a handful in the AFC come January.