Just like that, the Cincinnati Bengals are back on the rise in the power rankings.
Going on the road in primetime to take down a Jacksonville Jaguars team with top playoff seed aspirations tends to do that for a club.
Case in point, the newest rankings from USA Today’s Nate Davis:
21. Bengals (26): Their win at Jacksonville was their first Monday night road victory since 1990, snapping a string of nine consecutive defeats in that context. More importantly, QB2 Jake Browning’s sterling performance restores a glimmer of hope … even if realists think this is still a lost campaign.
The shocking outburst from Jake Browning did much more for the Bengals than earn the backup quarterback a weekly award.
Now, the team has playoff positioning to think about for at least one more week as it looks to keep winning and hopes to find a way to sneak into the postseason.
And if that keeps happening, a rise back up the power rankings will naturally occur, too.
