NFL Heat Check
Team Heat Check: Cincinnati Bengals Run Hot, Miami Dolphins Run Cold (NFL)
Published
Form is the story the standings tell slowly and the last ten games tell fast. Right now the fast version of NFL is easy to summarize: Cincinnati Bengals are rolling, Miami Dolphins are reeling, and the gap between those two feelings is enormous.
Who's hot
Start with Cincinnati Bengals. They have won 5 of their last 5, and they have not been sneaking past anyone: the points margin over that stretch is +57, which breaks down to about 25.2 scored and 13.8 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.
Buffalo Bills are the closest thing to company at 5-0, with a +55 points margin that says the record is no fluke.
Keep Baltimore Ravens in the conversation too, at 4-1 over their last 5.
The whole league is averaging 20.1 points a game in this stretch, which makes Cincinnati Bengals outrunning that number by 5.1 per night the loudest stat on the page.
The deep freeze
Then there is Miami Dolphins. A 0-5 stretch is ugly on its own; pair it with a -77 points margin and it stops looking like bad luck. They are being outscored by about 15.4 points a game, and no scheduling quirk explains that away.
They have company at the cold end: Indianapolis Colts, 0-1-4 over the same window.
In between the extremes it gets crowded, Kansas City Chiefs at 2-1-2 and Seattle Seahawks at 2-1-2 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.
By the numbers
For the fuller picture, the five best recent records in the league:
| Team | Last 10 | Points +/- |
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Bengals | 5-0 (5 gm) | +57 |
| Buffalo Bills | 5-0 (5 gm) | +55 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 4-1 (5 gm) | +76 |
| San Francisco 49ers | 4-1 (5 gm) | +66 |
| Los Angeles Rams | 4-1 (5 gm) | +46 |
Worth remembering
As always, watch where record and points margin tell different stories about the same club. The margin tends to know first.