Cincinnati Bengals: Where beating yourself happens

Missed opportunities, costly turnovers and poor execution have caused the Bengals to start 2-2, when in reality, they should be 4-0 and running away with the AFC North.

"“Yeah, they just out-played us today. We can’t be out there half-stepping,” Defensive tackle Domata Peko said. “We have to come out and play a lot better next week if we want to win. It’s a tough one for us today, a little sad, but we have to play better. They out-played us on third down. Their defense had two turnovers and we didn’t have any. It’s hard to win when you don’t have any turnovers and can’t stop them on third down. We have to get better on defense and better as a team overall.”"

So far, they’ve given the ball away 9 times, the third-most in the AFC. The only teams worse are the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets, who area  combined 2-6 right now and don’t look anything like the Super Bowl contender many pegged the Bengals to be.

If they don’t clean up all of these crucial mistakes that keep costing them close ballgames, they’ll be on the outside looking in when the playoffs open. Simply put, the Bengals are beating themselves if they don’t make it to the postseason.

Unfortunately, that’s a theme that’s far too common under head coach Marvin Lewis. Maybe he should be getting some of the early season “hot-seat” talk.