Why can’t unbeaten Bengals outlast Patriots, Broncos in AFC?

There is a game of musical chairs that looms large in the AFC playoff picture.

In Week 12, the currently 7-0 New England Patriots head to Denver to face the currently 7-0 Broncos.

In Week 16, the Broncos will host the Cincinnati Bengals, who moved to 8-0 with their 31-10 Thursday night victory over the Cleveland Browns.

Two of those three teams almost certainly will earn a first-round bye; the third will have to play an extra playoff game.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: First place wins $100K in our $500K contest for Week 9]

For the Bengals, the idea of playing one more postseason game than they have to comes with the haunting and persistent reminder of playoff failures past. But watching them dominate the Browns for most of the second half falls in line with the kind of team they’ve been most of the season — a group that little resembles the one-and-dones of years gone by.

The Bengals are not perfect. Defensively, they are solid but hardly spectacular. They allowed quarterback Johnny Manziel — starting for the first time since Week 2, with a short week of practice, on the road, against an undefeated team — to scramble around and make some plays in the first half, when he completed 11 for 18 passes (with a few drops) for 128 yards with no interceptions and a touchdown pass to Duke Johnson near the end of the second quarter to cut the Bengals’ lead to 14-10.

In the second half, the Bengals were dominant, outgaining the Browns 247-32 and adjusting well to Manziel, forcing him to stay in the pocket, glue to his first read and start to become the wild-card passer we’ve mostly known him to be. 

Offensively, Andy Dalton rebounded from a so-so performance in the big Week 8 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to remain in control all night. The Browns sold out to shutting down A.J. Green, so Dalton (a tidy 21-of-27 passing, 231 yards, three TDs) casually distributed the ball elsewhere, with tight end Tyler Eifert — who was hurt all last season — for all three scores.

The run game was effective all night, highlighted by a Hue Jackson special: a 25-yard reverse for a score by Mohamed Sanu (which was set up by several stretch runs the other way) with Dalton has his lead blocker. Sanu walked in untouched. Jackson might have gotten cute with his play calling early on, but he got back to basics when the Bengals needed it most.

That’s the hallmark of a good team. The Bengals have shown they can win games in very different ways, responding to each week’s unique challenges. They’re 8-0, with a four-game lead in the AFC North and with the Pittsburgh Steelers facing a suddenly tough game with the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.

So why should we assume the Bengals can’t earn the top seed in the AFC?

The schedule features the massive game at Denver, a tough one at the Arizona Cardinals in prime time and another meeting with the Steelers. Not much else.

Dalton has been very good all season, even great at times. Eifert and Green are mismatches, Marvin Jones and Sanu are good complements and running backs Jeremy Hill and Gio Bernard have formed a potent running duo.

As long as Jackson doesn’t try to prove how clever he can be with his myriad formations, motions, misdirection plays and route combinations, this offense can be every bit the monster the Patriots are. And if there’s an offense that has a chance to penetrate that vicious Broncos defense, this is the group.

So why not? It’s time to start rethinking the Bengals, if you haven’t already.

More NFL on Yahoo Sports

– – – – – – –

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm