Most playoff prediction scenarios indicate the Bengals (7-5) will need to win at least three of their last five games to make the postseason for the first time since 2015.
“I view the next game as a must-win game,” tight end C.J. Uzomah said. “I don’t know how many people say this on the team, but I think the approach we have is that the next game is always the most important game, especially when you’re in the hunt. That’s kind of how and where our mindset is as a team is this next game is a must-win game, and then we’ll focus on the game after that. I’m not even concerned about the other four outside of this one, and this game right here is a must-win game for us.”
Uzomah said the Bengals just keep shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and putting themselves “behind the eight ball.” That was the case last week when two first-quarter turnovers contributed to a 24-0 first-half deficit before Cincinnati rallied to within two points and ended the comeback with two more turnovers.
Wide receiver Tyler Boyd said this is a team that feels confident it can come back in those situations, but he was surprised the Bengals fell in such a big hole so quickly.
“I was surprised by the fact that we didn’t execute as early as we should have,” Boyd said. “There were a lot of plays where we had, the forced fumble and the pick. Those plays could’ve easily been avoided if we had done one thing better out of each position. But I wasn’t too worried because it was still early, first quarter and knowing how dynamic and explosive our offense is, and I know how much our defense are going to produce stops throughout the game, which they always do. I really wasn’t too worried at that time. I knew we couldn’t continue to turn the ball over, continue to mess up on offense and do things like that. Once we started to get things rolling, I knew we were going to (get back) in the game.”
And they did and were driving with a chance to take their first lead in the third quarter when Joe Mixon fumbled the ball away. While Joe Burrow has struggled with interceptions this season, a Mixon miscue has been a rare occurrence in his NFL career.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor isn’t worried about him bouncing back from that.
“Joe does an excellent job of ball security,” Taylor said. “We all know we can’t have that. He knows that. But he’s one the better backs I’ve ever been around in terms of ball security, so we expect that to be rectified going forward.”
Mixon has missed practice all week because of illness, as he’s dealing with cold-like symptoms. Taylor told media Friday he had tested negative for COVID and the flu, but it was a good sign he emerged to watch practice from the sideline, wearing a mask as the team is trying to stop the spread of illness. Two players were sick last week, and defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin was dealing with an illness this week as well.
Taylor told reporters Friday he anticipated Mixon would play Sunday, depending on how he is feeling Saturday.
The Bengals will be without linebacker Logan Wilson, but cornerback Chidobe Awuzie was seen at practice Friday and Taylor indicated Trae Waynes likely would be available Sunday after resuming practice this week off injured reserve. Quarterback Joe Burrow didn’t practice Wednesday because of his pinky injury, but returned to limited work Thursday and won’t have limitations Sunday. Offensive linemen Trey Hopkins and Riley Reiff were limited in practices and are expected to be available as well after missing last week with ankle injuries.
Keeping players healthy will be key to the team’s success the last five games, Boyd said.
“Just keeping all of our main core guys as tight and as healthy as possible, so we can go out there and have our best possible chance of executing the plays to our best abilities and just rallying off each other, having that same correlation as the defense, offense and the special teams,” he said. “If we’re all carrying each other and performing at a high level on each area on the field then I believe we’ll be able to reach the playoffs.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
49ers at Bengals, 4:25 p.m., CBS, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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