Are Joe Burrow and the Bengals truly back?
An overtime escape against the Tennessee Titans isn’t the most convincing proof, but Cincinnati sits at 5-2, Burrow is enjoying the best start of his career, and a favorable remaining schedule could push them back into the playoffs after three seasons on the outside.
Burrow tossed three interceptions on Sunday yet still piled up 462 passing yards and five touchdowns, bringing him to 13 TD passes over the past three weeks. His 20 touchdown passes lead the league and are three more than he’d ever had through seven games; he also has career-best totals at this point with 2,115 passing yards, a 111.6 passer rating and an NFL-best 73.0% completion rate.
Cincinnati’s offense remains elite, powered by arguably the league’s top 1-2 receiving duo in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Veteran tight end Mike Gesicki is enjoying a late-career surge at 31, hauling in TDs in six of seven games to already match his single-season high.
The biggest reason for optimism, though, is the defense — a unit that has hampered the team in recent seasons. Where the Bengals allowed 30.7 points per game at this point last year, the 2026 edition is giving up just 22.7, a jump from 30th to 14th in scoring defense. Red-zone performance has improved dramatically as well: touchdown rate on opponent trips inside the 20 has fallen from 63% to 42%, moving Cincinnati from 24th to fifth.
Their pass rush has also taken a leap. A year ago the Bengals ranked 23rd in sacks, led by Myles Murphy’s 5.5; this season free-agent addition Boye Mafe already has 5.5 sacks, and newly acquired defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (traded from the Giants for the No. 10 pick) has five himself. Lawrence’s most recent sack helped force the Titans game into overtime. Cincinnati is third in the NFL with 23 sacks and, having already used its bye, projects to finish with a franchise-record pace of about 56 sacks.
The schedule is friendly: only four of the Bengals’ remaining 10 opponents have winning records, and two of those teams are the Browns. After dropping the first meeting with Pittsburgh, a home win over the Steelers next week is crucial, but Cincinnati still faces three NFC South clubs plus an Indianapolis team that is rebuilding.
If Burrow stays healthy he could improve on his best-ever MVP finish (fourth); he currently ranks third in MVP odds behind Josh Allen and Brock Purdy. The Bengals’ next victory will equal last season’s win total (6), and they still have a realistic shot at challenging Cincinnati’s franchise high of 12 wins. The club hasn’t hosted a playoff game past the wild-card round since 1988, but if they keep dispatching inferior opponents they could be in position to change that in January.
Strange stat from Tampa Bay-Atlanta: the Buccaneers shut out the Falcons 16-0 without completing a pass — the first time that’s happened in 52 years — and one quirky box-score item stood out: Falcons receiver Drake London recorded more tackles than catches.
London was targeted six times and had a single reception for eight yards, but he added two tackles after interceptions by Michael Penix Jr. The NFL records those as miscellaneous tackles by offensive players, and London already has six this season — double anyone else in the league. Ja’Marr Chase led the NFL in this category in both 2024 and 2025 and has forced a fumble this year; if Atlanta keeps coughing up turnovers, London could become only the second player in 25 years to reach double-digit miscellaneous tackles in a single season (Jeremy Maclin had 11 in 2014). London, now in his fifth season, has 17 tackles as an offensive player so far, and those plays haven’t come on special teams.
On kickoff returns: Las Vegas’ Dylan Laube produced the first kickoff-return touchdown of the season on Sunday, meaning it took eight weeks this year for the new “dynamic” kickoff model’s first TD — and suggests kickoff-return scores will be rare under the current format. There were seven kickoff return TDs in the new-model debut year (2024) and six last year; this season’s late first score points to a further decline.
Teams appear to be kicking shorter more often, betting that coverage units can hold returners inside the 35-yard line — and touchback rates have dropped sharply. In 2024, 30 of 32 teams had at least a 30% touchback rate (19 teams exceeded 60%); last year only three teams cleared 30%, led by the Rams at 56%. This season the Dolphins lead with a 44% touchback rate and are the lone team above 30%. As a result, more kicks are being returned but very few reach midfield: of 1,218 kickoffs this year, only 42 (3.44%) went to midfield or beyond.
Laube leads the NFL with a 34.1-yard return average and five returns of 40+ yards — two more than any other player. Last season Buffalo’s Ray Davis had six returns of 40+ yards and one of that year’s six kickoff-return TDs.
Fan take: Bengals fans should be excited — Cincinnati looks like a complete team for the first time in years, with an offense that can explode and a defense that finally creates stops. For NFL fans generally, the trends on special teams and turnovers (and how coaches adapt) could subtly reshape field-position strategy and the value placed on dynamic returners going forward.
Source: www.foxsports.com
