None of the three Super Bowl favorites (the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs) added wins to their tally last week, which goes to show how open the championship race is in Week 8. There is still time for teams further down the pecking order to either make up ground on the frontrunners or surpass them entirely in the divisional and Wild Card standings before the postseason hunt really heats up in the second half of the campaign. That means the Cincinnati Bengals have ample opportunities to take command of an AFC North that might surprisingly be the most competitive division in football.
On the other hand, the clock is ticking much faster on the Houston Texans than anyone thought possible heading into the season. A plethora of top-tier Super Bowl contenders will go head-to-head this week, which will either separate the most formidable title hopefuls from the rest or cloud the picture even further. Here are the latest trends in the Super Bowl race heading into Week 8.
It took until Week 7 for them to earn their first divisional win, but that was all it took for the Bengals to become the AFC North favorites for the first time this season. At halftime, when they trailed the Ravens, 13-0, it looked as though they were bound to fall to 0-2 in the uber-competitive division. But then Joe Burrow happened.
The superstar quarterback posted a perfect passer rating across the third and fourth quarters when he completed 16 of 18 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns. It was perhaps the best half of his terrific career. The offense has been consistent throughout the first two months of the year and now has back-to-back games with at least 31 points.
The defense has shown flashes of improvement following multiple years of misery, but it has yet to string together strong showings. If that comes by season's end, the Bengals will be a complete team with a top-flight quarterback and a sometimes unstoppable offense. That defensive unit has to prove itself before Cincinnati can be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender, but again, the signs are there.
It stifled Tyler Huntley in a shutout second half on Sunday and, in Week 2, held the Texans to just six points. Burrow showed last week that he can still make up for many of the defense's shortcomings. He did so a week prior with four touchdowns in an eerily close game against the Miami Dolphins, too.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
