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- Mar 18, 2019
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The Bengals went into their Week 9 bye coming off a win that led to some optimistic thoughts about what the second half of the season might bring.
They beat the Titans 31-20 after close losses to the Colts and Browns and they had quarterback Joe Burrow growing as his rookie season progressed, so a 2-5-1 record seemed like something they could build on. Things have not gone their way since their return to action.
Cincinnati lost 36-10 to the Steelers in Week 10, lost Burrow for the season in Week 11, and their losing streak stands at five games after last Sunday’s blowout loss to the Cowboys. Head coach Zac Taylor explained the frame of mind around the team after the latest loss.
“I think ‘frustration’ is the biggest word I can come up with right now,” Taylor said, via Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “That’s the bottom line: you can’t make excuses right now. We’re not winning football games. It’s frustrating. We’re all frustrated. We have a lot of good guys that we believe in that are pulling together and doing everything we can to get these wins. It’s just not working out for us, and that leads to frustration. These players and coaches deserve to do it, but you have to earn it and find a way to do it. We have not done that.”
Expectations were not all that high heading into the season and Burrow’s injury provides an explanation for why things have gone downhill over the last month, although that’s little balm for Taylor. The team is now 4-24-1 since he took over and there’s only so much rationalization one can do in the face of that record.