{"id":448255,"date":"2025-10-15T11:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/448255\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:37:13","slug":"where-cincinnati-ranks-entering-week-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/448255\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Cincinnati ranks entering Week 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, the media believes the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> did look a little better with Joe Flacco now at quarterback instead of Jake Browning. Unfortunately, the Bengals<\/a> are still looking for their first win since their 2-0 start, as a 27-18 loss to the Green Bay Packers dropped Cincinnati to 2-4 on the year.<\/p>\n

The Bengals are still hovering around the mid-20s across the sets of power rankings, but let’s see where each place has the Bengals as they enter a short week heading into Thursday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

USA Today: No. 25 (Last Week: 25)<\/p>\n

From Nate Davis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Their 2-4 start \u2026 mirrors the one they also had in 2024, when they barely missed the playoffs. But if they’re lucky, QB Joe Burrow \u2013 and perhaps the defense and a run game \u2013 will be back \u2026 at some point this season.<\/p>\n

ESPN: No. 27 (Last Week: 25)<\/p>\n

From Ben Baby<\/a>: (on how the future of the defense is murky)<\/p>\n

Coming into the season, Cincinnati hoped\u00a0new defensive coordinator<\/a>\u00a0Al Golden could transform a unit that really struggled last season. While there have been positive moments, some of the key players aren’t playing as well as needed. The Bengals have already made a major switch at middle linebacker, with rookie\u00a0Barrett Carter<\/a>\u00a0taking over for veteran\u00a0Logan Wilson<\/a>, a team captain. But other players, such as cornerback\u00a0Cam Taylor-Britt<\/a>, have not performed well enough either. A team that spent heavily on offense needs its young defenders to provide adequate play, which could be an issue beyond this season.<\/p>\n

The Athletic: No. 27 (Last Week: 25)<\/p>\n

From Josh Kendall and Chad Graff:<\/a><\/p>\n

Adding Joe Flacco\u00a0may not save the Bengals\u2019 season<\/a>, but it could change the fortunes of folks who have Chase or Tee Higgins on their fantasy teams. In Flacco\u2019s first game in Cincinnati, Chase had 10 catches for 92 yards, and Higgins had a season-high 62 yards. Despite the Bengals\u2019 struggles, Chase is still 21st in the league in fantasy scoring (18.57 ppg).<\/p>\n

RELATED: Is Bengals QB Joe Burrow actually coming back this season?<\/a><\/p>\n

NFL.com: No. 27 (Last Week: 27)<\/p>\n

From Eric Edholm<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The first four series\u00a0at Green Bay<\/a>\u00a0were predictably ugly, but as sure as death and taxes,\u00a0Joe Flacco<\/a>\u00a0eventually started throwing dimes. Though he couldn’t quite engineer a heroic comeback on the road at Lambeau, Flacco had the Packers reeling for a minute — about five days after he arrived\u00a0via trade<\/a>. Who knows if he can keep it up, but that’s pretty incredible. At 2-4, the Bengals are waist-deep in water, but they’ll at least have three straight home games before the bye to give themselves a puncher’s chance. If they can somehow get back to relevance, it will be because Flacco is able to get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers. On Sunday, he gave us a taste of what’s possible.<\/p>\n

FOX Sports: No. 27 (Last Week: 24)<\/p>\n

From Ralph Vacchiano:<\/a><\/p>\n

With almost no time to prepare, veteran\u00a0Joe Flacco<\/a>\u00a0showed he was already a better quarterback than backup\u00a0Jake Browning<\/a>. The Bengals still couldn\u2019t win, though. They better find a way out of this four-game slide \u2014 and soon.<\/p>\n

NBC Sports: No. 27 (Last Week: 26)<\/p>\n

From Mike Florio:<\/a><\/p>\n

Covering the double-digit spread is the best they can do.<\/p>\n

CBS Sports: No. 27 (Last Week: 25)<\/p>\n

From Pete Prisco:<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Flacco looked better than Jake Browning in losing to the Packers. But how much better? They have a short week with a game against the division-leading Steelers this week.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Bengals\u2019 QB trade search included some shocking names<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the most part, the media believes the Cincinnati Bengals did look a little better with Joe Flacco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[2338,2345,247,265,228,7844,1574,227,256,2296,3629,12,388,4778,7,2339,8886,20842,379,5461,19907,1573,1577,562,7788,4444,2641,4049,248,267,246,88,6,35196,245,264,818,817,829,9,266,819,8885,2978,776,1434],"class_list":{"0":"post-448255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-al","9":"tag-al-golden","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-bengals","13":"tag-browning","14":"tag-burrow","15":"tag-cincinnati","16":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","17":"tag-cincinnatibengals","18":"tag-davis","19":"tag-espn","20":"tag-espn-inc","21":"tag-flacco","22":"tag-football","23":"tag-golden","24":"tag-higgins","25":"tag-hub","26":"tag-inc","27":"tag-jake","28":"tag-jake-browning","29":"tag-joe","30":"tag-joe-burrow","31":"tag-joe-flacco","32":"tag-logan","33":"tag-logan-wilson","34":"tag-nate","35":"tag-nate-davis","36":"tag-national","37":"tag-national-sports","38":"tag-neutral","39":"tag-news","40":"tag-nfl","41":"tag-nfl-hub","42":"tag-overall","43":"tag-overall-neutral","44":"tag-scores","45":"tag-sport","46":"tag-sport-scores-u0026-statistics","47":"tag-sports","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-statistics","50":"tag-tee","51":"tag-tee-higgins","52":"tag-u0026","53":"tag-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}