Bengal Morning Takes: Atop the AFC North

[Jungletiger]

Bengal Morning Takes: Atop the AFC North

September, 15, 2014

Sep 15

8:00

AM ET

By Coley Harvey | ESPN.com

 

CINCINNATI -- It's still early. Very early.

But the Cincinnati Bengals have many reasons to feel good about the defense of their division title after two weeks.

For starters, they are one of four AFC teams with 2-0 records. If the Eagles beat the Colts in this week's Monday night game, that would make the Bengals one of seven teams in the entire league with 2-0 marks. Of those seven, only three, the Panthers, Broncos and Bengals, were playoff teams last season.

According to our friends at ESPN Stats & Information, since 1990, teams that start a season with a 3-0 record have a 75.2 percent chance of making the playoffs. So the Bengals have to be feeling good about their postseason aspirations if they can breeze into the Week 4 bye undefeated.

To get to 3-0, the Bengals will have to extend their regular-season home winning streak to 11 games next week when Tennessee comes to town. If they win that game, the Bengals will have set a new franchise record for consecutive regular-season home wins. If they continue to roll the way they have through these first two weeks, maybe they will have a chance at redemption from last season's playoff loss by hosting another postseason game this season.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/post/_/id/11219/bengals-nfl-afc-north-standings-morning-takes