When the Bengals started the season with three straight losses, there was a lot of talk about how they rebounded from slow starts in the past and winning four of their next six games seemed to suggest they could turn things around again this year.
Three straight losses, including Sunday’s 44-38 home loss to the Steelers, have all but ended those hopes. The Bengals could avoid a losing record by winning their final five games, but it’s unlikely that would result in a playoff berth so the motivation for the final weeks of the season was a topic of conversation after the latest loss.
Quarterback Joe Burrow said that the season will be “remembered by how we handle this” and that the closing stretch will be telling about how invested players are in the team.
“I think we’ll learn a lot about who we have in the locker room,” Burrow said, via a transcript from the team. “The guys we can count on going forward, and the guys we can’t. The next six weeks will say a lot about who we can count on and who we can’t.”
The Bengals have lost four games this season while scoring 33 points, so it seems clear that any plans for future success will center on improving a defense that has failed to meet expectations this season. How the team will address that and how sweeping the changes will be are questions that will be answered in the near future.
