Bengals Defense Surging at Perfect Time to Take Division, Make Waves in Playoffs

After beating the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, the Cincinnati Bengals are officially headed to the postseason for the fourth consecutive season.

The Bengals may have also quieted the critics, if only temporarily, about the team's ability to show up and deliver in prime time. However, it will take a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football next week to take the AFC North title and prove that prime time really isn't a problem.

For now, the important thing is that Cincinnati has punched its postseason ticket and has done so in rather convincing fashion.

There are still question marks surrounding the team, of course. Quarterback Andy Dalton hasn't been the most consistent signal-caller (passer rating of 53.6 a week ago, 89.6 on Monday), and rookie running back Jeremy Hill still has a fumbling issue despite coming on as a wonderful player.

That Bengals defense, though, has been simply special over the past two weeks and provides a blueprint for what the Bengals need to do to make a serious postseason run.

Cincinnati shut out the Johnny Manziel-led Cleveland Browns in Week 15. It forced two turnovers and limited the Browns to 107 net yards of total offense en route to a 30-0 victory.

The defense may have done an even more impressive job against the Broncos and Peyton Manning, who is clearly on an entirely different quarterback plane than the rookie Manziel.

"We can't take the things we did last week and apply it to Peyton," Bengals safety George Iloka said before Monday's game, per Coley Harvey of ESPN.com. "That would be foolish."

Cincinnati did indeed use a different game plan for Manning, but it was equally effective.

Manning got his yards (311 of them) and a couple of touchdowns. But he was also goaded into tossing four interceptions, including one that Dre Kirkpatrick returned for a touchdown and a game-sealing pick at the Cincinnati 19-yard line with less than two minutes remaining. 

The usually cool-headed Manning came alive in the third quarter, but he spent much of the game confused by Cincinnati's blitz packages and pre-snap movement. As a team, the Broncos were held to a mere 85 yards rushing, which also didn't help Manning.

This sudden improvement in Cincinnati's run defense may be one of the biggest reasons to believe that Cincinnati can hang with the best the AFC has to offer. Defending the run has been a weakness for the team throughout the season (ranked 25th, allowing an average of 124.8 yards per game heading into Week 16), but it has stiffened in the past two weeks.

A week ago, the Browns were held to 53 yards rushing. In its 24-3 Week 10 win over the Bengals, Cleveland rushed for 170 yards.

The pass rush has also come alive over the past two weeks. Cincinnati logged five sacks against the Broncos and Browns after amassing just 15 over the first 14 weeks of the season.

Given the unpredictability of Dalton (not to mention nagging injuries for A.J. Green), the Bengals can't head into the stretch run expecting to win shootouts. Controlling the clock with the ground game, clamping down on opposing ball-carriers and forcing turnovers can create a winning Cincinnati formula.

The offense, which is ranked seventh in overall efficiency by Pro Football Focus (subscription required), can do enough to win with a stout defense.

The next test will be the Steelers, who defeated Cincinnati 42-21 in Week 14. It will be a tough test, as the Steelers are on a roll of their own, winning four of their last five.

The Bengals held a 21-17 fourth-quarter lead the last time these two teams met but ended up losing in a blowout. If the defense that Cincinnati has fielded the past two weeks shows up in the season finale, the Bengals will have a prime opportunity to stay ahead and claim the AFC North title.

A win and a Broncos loss in Week 17 would even give the Bengals a first-round playoff bye.

Division title or no, the Bengals are going to face an AFC playoff field full of potent, high-scoring offenses. The four other teams to have clinched an AFC playoff spot (Pittsburgh, Denver, the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots) all rank in the top seven league-wide in scoring.

This is why a balanced team like Cincinnati has a chance to make some serious noise in the postseason and why the defense couldn't have picked a better time to begin hitting its stride.