After defeating the Ravens 41-21 on Sunday, the Bengals are in the driver’s seat to win their first AFC North title since 2015.
Cincinnati swept Baltimore and Pittsburgh this season, with the club’s only division loss so far coming against Cleveland back in Week Nine.
Head coach Zac Taylor said after Sunday’s game that his team is feeling good about going 4-0 against the Ravens and Steelers after his first two seasons of finishing last in the division.
“We’ve got kind of beaten up on over the last few years, so our guys just have all the confidence in the world right now. And they’re not done yet,” Taylor said in his postgame press conference. “We’re 4-1 in the division right now, and we need to be better than that this year, quite frankly.”
At 9-6, Cincinnati hasn’t yet clinched a postseason berth. The team has games against the Chiefs and Browns to end the regular season.
“We know how big of a test this Kansas City game is coming up for us this weekend,” Taylor said. “It’s far and away the biggest game of the year for us. Our guys are going to be ready, and we’re going to do a great job of getting rested, and getting our best focus. We’ve got a huge challenge coming to town, and our guys are going to be ready for it.”
But with only two games to go, Taylor said he’s learned that his team is going to fight.
“It’s been a crazy NFL season,” Taylor said. “There’s a lot of adversity that comes at you in a lot of different ways. We do a lot of positive things, and sometimes people just want to talk about the negatives, but we’ve powered through it all, and found the positives, and kept building on it, and kept believing in each other, and believing in the coaches, and the coaches believing in the players. And everything is right there in front of us going into January. We’re happy about that, but we’re not content yet.”
