If you had the Bengals in the playoff conversation the first week of December well you win.

It’s December 2nd and the Bengals are playing like not only the best team in the AFC North, but the AFC conference.

The club came out of the bye and they are rolling – they are back to Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday and two first round draft picks Joe Burrow vs. Justin Herbert for the first time in their careers.

Who are you taking? 

The topic all offseason and going into this season is who do you take to build a franchise around? For me – of course it’s easy to defend the hometown team, but I’ve been around the team from media stand point from draft night to regular season opener – listened to several different Joe Burrow media pressers and watch him on the field –

Joey B is different and so is Justin Herbert – one thing I know for sure -you can’t go wrong with either and both clubs are in good hands with QB number 1.

Now onto the game…

Bengals are at Paul Brown Stadium for most of the second half of the season including Sunday –

Some wanted the game to be flexed to prime-time I’m fine with a early kickoff for a west coast team – will that play a factor? We will see.

The forecast calls for a chance of rain – it could move into late afternoon so this might not impact the game – but the Chargers have struggled to stop the run most of the season and Joe Mixon is having himself a few games – if the defense takes away the wideouts I see Joe eating for the day against Los Angeles.

Bengals defense – can they impact the game again? Prior to the bye this side of the ball was struggling in the tackling department, but I still believed in this group because of what they were doing early in the season against guys like Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers and after the bye they are showing they might be the real deal – credit to the Bengals front office

Bengals spent big money in back-to-back offseason’s and it’s paying off big time – nice work Duke Tobin.

Score prediction?

Bengals win 3rd straight (first time in the Zac Taylor era)

28-24 in a close one.