DESPITE 3-5 START, BENGALS NOT GIVING UP ON PLAYOFFS

Team started 3-5 that season, but 7-1 finish led to playoff berth.

“If we can eliminate some of the little mistakes, we’ll have a chance to put together a streak of wins. There’s no doubt in my mind we can do it.”

That quote came out of the Cincinnati Bengals locker room five years ago, rolling off the lips of former offen- sive tackle Andrew Whitworth after the Bengals had dropped their fourth consecutive game to fall to 3-5.

That team went 7-1 down the stretch to finish 10-6 and earn a wild-card berth, a performance that could inspire the current Bengals, who also find themselves wallowing at 3-5.

“The only thing you can take from that is know that it’s possible,” said safety George Iloka, one of 15 players on the current roster who experienced that improbable run.

“You can look at what’s happened before,” quarterback Andy Dalton added. “The big- gest thing we have to worry about is just worrying about this week. That’s the mental- ity you have to take. You stack games on top of each other. You get a win, you get another win, you get that momentum going, you play well, and that’s what it comes down to.”

From 1990, when the NFL went to the current playoff format, until 2011, 121 teams started 3-5, and only seven (6 percent) rallied to make the playoffs.

The Bengals were not the only team to pull it off in 2012. Washington also rebounded from a 3-5 to not only make the playoffs, but win the NFC East Division.

From 2012 to 2016, 34 teams have started 3-5. The 2012 Bengals were one of six to reach the postseason, three of which did it in 2015: Houston, Kansas City and Washington.

Right guard Clint Boling, one of four offensive players left from the 2012 team, said he remembers going on the run but not much about what went into the turnaround.

“I don’t remember the exact feeling and the way that it played out,” he said. “I don’t remember as well as I would like.

“Obviously we’ve been there, we’ve done it,” he added.

The outlook was even more dire in 2012 as the Bengals arrived at 3-5 after a four-game losing streak, with three of the losses coming at home.

But they routed the defend- ing Super Bowl champion New York Giants 31-13 the following week to begin a four- game winning streak that also included an impressive 28-6 win at Kansas City and a 34-10 domination of Oakland in Carson Palmer’s return to Paul Brown Stadium.

The only blip in the 7-1 finish was a 20-19 home loss to Dal- las when the Cowboys scored 10 unanswered points in the final 6:35. But the Bengals clinched a playoff berth two weeks later with a 13-10 win at Pittsburgh.

“Andy just told me about that (run),” Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green said. “I had forgotten that it happened.

“We’re still in this thing,” he added. “Surprisingly, we’re still in this. You look around the league, and a lot of teams are 4-4, 3-4, 3-5, so we can pave our way to try to turn this thing around.”

NFL fines Green: The NFL fined Green $42,000 for his fight with Jacksonville corner- back Jalen Ramsey on Sunday, leading to both players being ejected.

Green s aid he will not appeal the fine.

“I accept my fine, and I’ll pay it and move on,” Green said. “I did something I wasn’t supposed to do.”

Green said he wasn’t worried about possibly being suspended before the league announced he would not be Monday afternoon.

“I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “I accepted whatever punish- ment was handed down to me because I put myself in the position where I hurt my team and hurt myself. I can’t ever let that happen again.”

This is the second time Green has been fined in his seven-year NFL career.

The previous fine was for $11,000 when he punted the ball into the crowd after a touchdown reception in a 2015 game against Pittsburgh.