NFL Power Rankings Week 16: Seahawks Bury Rams on TNF

25. Cincinnati Bengals (5-8-1)

The Cincinnati Bengals’ nightmare season is officially over. Granted, it was a pretty slim chance Cincy had to make the playoffs anyway, but it is over nonetheless. The Bengals actually led for most of the game and carried a 20-15 lead into the final quarter, however Steelers kicker Chris Boswell nailed one of his six field goals on the afternoon and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tossed a late touchdown to give the Steelers the lead and the win. After a strong first half, the Bengals failed to score a single point in the second half and an offense that looked to be clicking to start the game completely disappeared. You know things are bad in Cincy when their entire offense was almost outscored by the opposing kicker.

Now that the playoffs are an afterthought, the Bengals will start looking to 2017, with one major question afoot: will head coach Marvin Lewis be retained beyond this season? That remains to be seen, but all indications thus far point to him returning. One has to wonder exactly what the Bengals head coach has to do to get fired, considering the Bengals went from a 12-4 playoff team a season ago to one that has totally collapsed in 2016. Aside from retaining some key free agents, the Bengals must look to improve an offensive line that has failed to protect its quarterback. In the grand scheme of things, the Bengals aren’t that bad off, but this team won’t return to AFC North prominence if nothing is done about the offensive line.