Cincinnati Bengals Staying Positive.

It was just roughly two weeks ago the Cincinnati Bengals were coming off a blow out 49-9 win over the New York Jets, and with a 6-

2 record at the time they looked like a team poised for a deep playoff run and potential Super Bowl contender, as the media was paying attention to their great success through the first eight games of the season.

Well things have definitely changed in the last two weeks, on Halloween night, a Thursday night game against Miami to take on the Dolphins, it wasn’t the best game for quarterback Andy Dalton who had three interceptions, had one taken to the house. In the second quarter, they lost their best defensive player, DT Geno Atkins to a torn ACL as the defense has now have 8 players on IR. They trailed 17-3 heading in the fourth quarter before scoring the tying touchdown on a highlight reel 35-yard run by rookie running back Giovani Bernard. The game eventually went to overtime and the in the worse way to lose the game, Dalton was sacked in the endzone by Dolphins defensive end Cameron Wake as the Bengals lost 22-20.

Two days ago the Bengals were playing a desperate Baltimore Ravens team, who came in 3-5 and in danger of falling big time in the AFC North with a loss. But, just like in the Dolphins game they got off to a bad start, Dalton had another three interception game, and team went into halftime trailing 17-o. The Cardiac Cats made another comeback scoring three in the third, then fourteen in the fourth which included a hail mary pass by Dalton to AJ Green for 51 yards as the Ravens tip the ball twice and Green was left open to catch the deflection to tie the game at 17 and send it to overtime, where the Ravens won it 20-17 on a game winning field goal. Two straight losses in overtime, two weeks which looked a eased to a division title has now turn into a race.

But the players in the locker room are still remaining confident and having a positive mind set. Bengals OT Andrew Whitworth said : “We’re frustrated, for sure,” “But I’m of the thinking that if it takes teams getting us into overtime and making field goals to beat us, if we can continue to make teams have to do that, eventually those things will go our way, too.”Are you frustrated? Heck yeah. But are you also understanding that this team’s going to make a team go to the wire to beat us every time we step on the field? To me, that’s a great positive.”

With all that has gone wrong since the Jets game, Head Coach Marvin Lewis gave props to his team, for hanging in there on Sunday, where it looked like it was going to be a runaway game for the Ravens in the beginning. He says this team is tough and can overcome adversity, but would like to play ahead than behind.

The team have a big game this Sunday against the Cleveland Browns who are trying to catch them in the division, and it’s probably their biggest game in recent years, so the Bengals must play a whole lot better than they have been the last two games, good thing there playing at Paul Brown Stadium because they haven’t lost  in there at all this season (4-0).