Bengals steady in divisional race after bye week

The Cincinnati Bengals got some interesting news via AFC North results as they rested on bye over the weekend.

Those Bengals rested up while the Cleveland Browns went down hard at the hands of the Miami Dolphins, 39-17. The Pittsburgh Steelers got back on track with a 20-10 win over the New Orleans Saints.

With the Baltimore Ravens on bye, that leaves the AFC North looking like this:

• Ravens 6-3 (2-0)
• Bengals 5-4 (0-3)
• Browns 3-6 (2-1)
• Steelers 3-6 (1-1)

The big red flag for the Bengals remains that winless mark in the division at 0-3.

But positives remain. The Steelers have still lost two of three and that long-snapper injury is all that stopped the Bengals from beating them in Week 1. Cleveland has lost five of its last six and has a steep hole to climb out of once Deshaun Watson comes back. And Baltimore has won three in a row, yet dropped an odd game to the Giants and only beat the Bengals by two points back in Week 5.

That’s a long way of saying the bye week could’ve gone much worse for the Bengals and they’re at least in a position to make it interesting exiting the break.