OK, let's deal with the week's biggest storyline right away.
Last December, the Bengals allowed Myles Garrett's 100th career sack but beat his Browns, 24-6, at Paycor Stadium.
No doubt they'll take the same result this Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) when the Browns come into Paycor for the season finale and Garrett one sack from the all-time single-season record held by the Giants' Michael Strahan and the Steelers' T.J. Watt.
It puts the Bengals' blossoming offensive line squarely in the limelight in a game that ends their breakout season.
Since quarterback Joe Flacco arrived for the Oct. 12 game in Green Bay through Joe Burrow's dissection of Arizona this past Sunday, the Bengals have the league's fourth-lowest sack percentage, per Pro Football Reference.
In that stretch, they have thrown the second-most passes while throwing the second-most touchdown passes for the second-most yards. In that stretch, the Bengals' Chase Brown is of one of six running backs to rush for at least 787 yards with a 5.1 yards per carry average.
The Bengals hope to get out of this confrontation without the controversy that seems to haunt the single-season sack record.
When Strahan set it with No. 22.5 in 2001, Packers quarterback Brett Favre was accused of handing him the mark when he went down in a heap after what Favre said was a blown bootleg. It's hard to see Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow doing that.
Then last Sunday, after the Browns upset the Steelers, Garrett claimed Pittsburgh made certain it denied him Watt's record at the expense of winning.
On Monday, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was as non-controversial as he could be.
"Every year we play him, and there is something on the line for his career. Last year it was his 100th sack, so we are just going to have a plan that gives us a chance to win the game," Taylor said. "The way he plays in Week 1, he plays the same every week whether he has something on the line or not. He's got our full attention."
He certainly has Burrow's attention. With a dozen sacks each, Burrow and the Ravens' Lamar Jackson are Garrett's most frequent victims.
"He's the best, I mean, he's the best defensive player on planet Earth. Can't put it in words," Taylor said. "I have as much respect for him as any player we've ever gone against.
"I think the fact that he's in position where he's at for this record is a credit to him that he's done it at such a high level repeatedly, over and over and over again. He's an absolute nightmare."
He's preparing for Garrett with a much different offensive line than the one that surrendered back-to-back sacks to him in the fourth quarter of the Bengals' 17-16 win on Opening Day to begin his march to the record.
The tackles are the same with Amarius Mims on the right and Orlando Brown Jr., on the left, where Garrett attacked for both sacks in Cleveland back on Sept. 7.
That was rookie left guard Dylan's Fairchild's first start and veteran right guard Dalton Risner's first appearance as Bengal after signing just days before. He was summoned off the bench 14 plays into the season when Lucas Patrick was injured.
More than three months later, Fairchild is a rookie no more and Risner has started the last six games at right guard. This won't be an opener on the road.
"It's just really, really impressive in terms of the overall connection of the communication," Taylor said of his O-line. "I think that's why our offensive line is playing the best since I've been here.
"Now you are seeing the continuity of our offensive line. Once any team in the league gets the first couple games under your belt and September is always a challenge to re-establish your identity and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are going to be. You catch a better groove in November and December on who you are. We need to focus on it. Now we know who we are. We know our strengths and weaknesses."
Age of Amarius
A strength on the line has clearly been Mims, the 2024 first-round pick who has grown into the 18th pick and his 6-8, 345-pound frame.
"With a guy like Amarius, it's a lot about just the recognition and the earned confidence and understanding like he could be the best in the world at what he does," said offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher. "He really could."
Risner, the seventh-year man who came in as a second-round pick of Denver, is getting a lot of praise in Mims' development with Pitcher also stressing the communication.
"I think that we've done a better job of handling movement from the fronts that we've seen in terms of twists and things of that nature," Pitcher said. "And I think he and Dalton have played really well next to each other. I think there's really good communication between those two. And I think that's where those things show up as much as anywhere else is when the pieces start to move and the picture changes post snap."
Flacco Sees Browns Again
Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden has an intriguing brain to pick this week. Joe Flacco, the Browns quarterback that the Bengals beat in the opener with two interceptions, is now Burrow's backup after October's deadline day deal.
But instead of a veteran pocket passer in Flacco making his 191st NFL start against him in the opener, Golden is facing mobile rookie Shedeur Sanders in his seventh NFL start.
"I think there's the body of work that includes Joe," Golden said. "The overarching mentality, for us right now, though, is what are they doing since Shedeur is there? So I think that would be a little bit different than what they were doing with Joe or what Joe experienced. There are things that Joe can share with us systematically, but I think they're plotting a course with Shedeur right now."
Sanders has thrown more picks (10) than touchdowns (seven) and his 68.5 passer rating is more than 25 points below league average. The Bengals have won five of their last seven games against rookie quarterbacks, including the win in Miami two weeks ago.
"He's got a strong arm, he can maneuver in the pocket. They're catering to that a little bit," Golden said. "There's some movement passes in there, or maybe some more sprints than they did earlier in the year, if it's third and three, or third and four, that kind of thing."
Slants and Screens
Pitcher took some bows for Burrow's stunningly gleeful surprise of a 21-yard pass to offensive lineman Cody Ford Sunday split wide against the Cardinals. And rightfully so. But he says it didn't come out of left field even though last week was the first time he saw Ford catch a ball.
The Bengals were using their six offensive linemen set more than they had all year to counter Arizona's crowded front and Ford is almost always the sixth man.
"It's not like we schemed up some genius play throwing the ball. We just put him in a position that you rarely see a big guy," Pitcher said. "But part of that is that when you put a six O-linemen on the field, and you go through the course of the game, and their coaching staff is tracking what you're doing, they can't say, hey, every time they put (six linemen) on the field, they run the ball, or they do this. You have to do other things off of it." …
Thanks in part to the success of Bears rookie head coach Ben Johnson, trick plays are becoming a bonding thing. But, like Pitcher says, when you've got Burrow throwing to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who needs gadgets?
"Yesterday was probably a good reminder for me that they do kind of have that secondary value. It's not something I would say I think a lot about," Pitcher said. "Sometimes it's best if you just get out of the way and let them work because they're great at what they do. So that's a calculation." …
