Understandably, the Cincinnati Bengals don’t move much in the Week 8 power rankings coming out of the bye.
In fact, they remain exactly in the same spot from one of the most prominent sets of rankings around, courtesy of USA Today’s Nate Davis:
12. Bengals (12): If they emerge from their bye and manage to beat San Francisco, seemingly resurgent Cincinnati will finish 4-0 against the NFC West.
What’s a little notable here is the Bengals fall behind every other single team in the AFC North.
And while that’s true in the divisional standings right now, it was fair to wonder if the rankings might take into greater account the two-game streak with a healthy-looking Joe Burrow before the bye, especially compared to a Cleveland team that is just getting by with an injured Deshaun Watson and having won its last two games by a combined three points.
Still, hard to complain either way and it’s pretty obvious that if the Bengals can take down San Franciso next weekend to make it three in a row, they could take a pretty dramatic leap.
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