The Cincinnati Bengals are legitimate 0-16 contenders.
Which isn’t to say the team hasn’t shown any growth over the course of the season. And isn’t to say the schedule doesn’t get a little easier.
But the questions popping up now at 0-10 make plenty of sense.
With another date against the Pittsburgh Steelers looming, Taylor can only focus on the now when asked about 0-16, as he told the media:
“No. I don’t even have time to think about that. We don’t want to be 0-11. We want to go get this win. We got on that airplane thinking we were going to go to Oakland and win that game. In the fourth quarter, we thought we were going to win the game. It’s extremely frustrating when you don’t. You put in all that work and feel like, ‘All right, we’re going to go out and get this finally,’ and then you don’t. You need to regroup. You have no choice. You need to keep your head up. We need to get after these guys this week. It’s a tough opponent for us. Our guys are looking to rebound, but we can’t think that far down the road. We just need to focus on this Sunday.”
But this Sunday comes with its usual batch of questions as the Steelers come to town. Pittsburgh owns the series and a new head coach didn’t exactly change that in Week 4 when Cincinnati went down on the road, 27-3.
The recent returns haven’t exactly helped fend off 0-16 talk either. The Bengals came out of the bye and took a 49-13 beating at the hands of Baltimore. A 17-10 loss in Oakland followed in which the passing game could only generate 115 yards on a 3.7 average.
It is going to take some serious help from an opponent for the Bengals to win a game or two. Maybe Pittsburgh’s rash of injuries makes it happen. Two games against Cleveland, one against the Jets and one against Miami could provide an opening.
But slowly, the 0-16 noise continues to build.
