CINCINNATI — Many of the Bengals packed and left town on Monday thinking they’d taken a big first step toward becoming a perennial playoff team.
Cincinnati has been in this spot before, and it hasn’t turned out that way.
The Bengals (9-8) had a breakthrough this season, earning only their third winning record and playoff appearance in the last 21 years. They lost in Houston 31-10 on Saturday, another reminder they’ve got a long way to go before they can join the NFL’s elite.
At least they seem to be headed the right way.
“We’re closing a chapter,” coach Marvin Lewis said on Monday.
“The book’s still being written. We’ve got things to do, but with a group of guys that I think just scratched the surface a little bit this year and they realize that. They’re not beating their chests.”
Despite having one of the NFL’s least-experienced rosters and rookies at quarterback and receiver, the Bengals won the final AFC wild card by taking advantage of a favorable schedule and competitors’ meltdowns.
Their total of nine wins included only one against a team that finished the season with a winning record. They played eight games against teams that also reached the playoffs, and lost all eight.
The next challenge is to make the playoffs for a second straight season, something they’ve done only once during their 44-year history — in 1981-82 under coach Forrest Gregg. That’s also the last time they’ve had back-to-back winning records, a sign of just how bad they’ve been.
Receiver A.J. Green and quarterback Andy Dalton, their top two draft picks, had Pro Bowl-caliber seasons as rookies, and the defense is built around a core of young players beginning to emerge.
“We have to be more effective and go out there and put a whole game together,” Dalton said. “This is something we didn’t do this year. We never put a full game together. We had good quarters, good halves, but we never had that one full game, and that’s something we’re going to have to get better at.”
