NFL Power Rankings, Week 12: Eagles fall to Saints in embarrassing fashion

17. Cincinnati Bengals

Sunday was one of those games the Cincinnati Bengals will most likely look back on down the road wishing they would have played much better since the team was in position to take down the Baltimore Ravens on numerous occasions. The Bengals knew it would be difficult to make some of the necessary adjustments with A.J. Green missing his second game in a row, but also the same argument can be made that Cincinnati had an advantage as well since Baltimore would be playing without Joe Flacco.

Instead, the Bengals finished on the losing end for the fourth time in five games while continuing to hurt their case in the AFC playoff picture, which is frustrating when seeing the type of position this team was earlier in the year. The pressure was already on Cincinnati to put an end to their playoff drought after missing out on each of the previous two seasons, and if they continue to look this bad, chances are that streak is going to increase to three.

Maybe by next weekend, Green will be healthy enough to return for Cincinnati to give them a better chance of defeating the Cleveland Browns. Even more frustrating, the Bengals could end up missing out on the playoff for a third year in a row, and it most likely wouldn’t convince the team to move on from Marvin Lewis since the head coach’s job always seems to be safe, no matter what.