The Cincinnati Bengals are 3-3 and right back in the thick of things, which isn't something that the other 31 teams want to hear. After starting 0-2 and then 1-3 and a lot of people counting the team out, the Bengals are back at .500 and starting to look like themselves again.
Following the 17-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks, head coach Zac Taylor spoke to the media and summed up the win pretty well.
"It's better to win ugly than lose pretty." - Zac Taylor says St. X head coach Steve Specht text him that on Saturday and it was one of the first things he thought of after today's win over the Seahawks.
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) October 15, 2023
Zac Taylor: "It's better to win ugly than lose pretty".
Yeah this was by no means an impressive Bengals win but rather an ugly one.
The defense played well in the sense that they were a bend but don't break unit but they gave up chunk plays throughout the game. Without the defense stepping up to the plate, however, this would have certainly been a loss, as the offense couldn't do anything after driving down the field and scoring two touchdowns on their first two drives.
The offense was inept after those first two drives, only getting three points on the board, which came thanks to the defense turning over Geno Smith and the Seahawks offense. Both sides are going to need to consistently play better moving forward if this team realistically wants to make a run at the AFC North title.
Coach Taylor is right though -- Winning ugly is a thousand times better than losing pretty. At least winning ugly means you won the game and a loss this week would have put the Bengals in a very tough spot.