It wasn’t just that the Cincinnati Bengals were 5-2 through seven games, their best seven-week start since 2015, it was that nearly half of their wins came against divisional foes that have dominated them in recent years.
Coming off an ugly loss to the Chicago Bears, the Bengals got their act together and won convincingly against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was their first win in Heinz Field since—you guessed it—2015, and factoring how the Steelers have rallied since that game, it looks more impressive now.
Cincinnati won two of their next three games after beating Pittsburgh, but both wins came against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions, and they barely defeated Jacksonville.