Cincy Jungle
It’s hard to imagine, but maybe there is still light at the end of the tunnel for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Despite two of the most horrible losses imaginable, the Bengals are still only two games out of the lead in the AFC North. The Bengals had a bye this past week and hopefully spent lots of time working on tackling. We’ll find out soon enough when Cincinnati travels to Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon.
Despite a 25-10 thrashing at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday night, Pittsburgh, at 5-4, still stands atop the division, with the Baltimore Ravens closing fast.
The Ravens finished off their third straight win by a 27-19 count at Minnesota, while the Cleveland Browns continued to drop further behind after a 27-20 loss to the New York Jets. Baltimore travels to Cleveland this weekend.
There was plenty of blame to go around in the Browns’ loss to the Jets. Cleveland special teams surrendered touchdowns on both kickoff (99 yards) and punt (74 yards) returns, and the defense gave up the go-ahead score on a 42-yard screen pass from Justin Fields to Breece Hall.
“Frustration is frustration,” said Browns defensive end Myles Garrett after the game. “You try your best not to point fingers. You’ve just got to clean up what you can, execute the best you can. We’ve just got to be better.”
The victory marked the first home win of the season for head coach Aaron Glenn.
“Listen, we know we have a long way to go and we have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball,” Glenn said. “But I’ll tell you what, our special teams really gave us a spark today.”
After starting the season at 1-5, Baltimore now finds itself just one game off of the division lead, and with plenty of momentum.
“I think we’re starting to hit our stride,” said Ravens’ safety Kyle Hamilton. “It’s not a surprise to us. I think we’re playing to our potential now, and that’s got to be sustained.”
Lamar Jackson, in his second start back from injury, completed 17 of 29 for 176 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown to tight end Mark Andrews. He also ran nine times for 36 yards.
But it was the defense that came up big in this one, turning three takeaways into 13 points. Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy tossed a pair of interceptions, and Baltimore recovered a fumbled kickoff return early in the third quarter.
“We still have a lot of work to do, a lot of games left, but we’re enjoying the process of getting better, and I don’t think we’re taking what we’re doing lightly,” linebacker Kyle Van Noy said.
The days of the Steel Curtain are long gone in Pittsburgh, and it was the Chargers’ defense who answered the bell on Sunday.
Los Angeles held Aaron Rodgers to 16 completions on 31...
