Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals find themselves in an unusual position going into November — healthy and with momentum.
The Bengals are 4-2 going into Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans. That's a 180-degree shift from the past two seasons when they were 2-4.
Burrow, who was also recovering from turf toe surgery at this time last year, has led the way. He leads the league with a 71.4% completion rate, is second with a 110.4 passer rating and tied for second with 15 touchdown passes entering Week 8.
“I feel really good about our team and the guys we have in there,” Burrow said. “It’s all just about building on what you’ve done and getting better. You can’t make the same mistake twice and expect to build momentum.”
The Bengals learned from their first-half mistakes in Baltimore, where they trailed 13-0 at halftime, and scored on their first five possessions of the second half to beat the Ravens 35-13.
Burrow has two straight games where he has four touchdown passes and no interceptions. Tee Higgins and Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb are the only players to have multiple games with at least 145 receiving yards this season while Ja'Marr Chase and tight end Mike Gesicki are tied for the AFC lead in receiving touchdowns with five.
The defense has also been stout by getting consistent pressure on quarterbacks despite having one of the lowest blitz rates in the league. The Bengals are one of five teams tied for the league lead with 21 sacks entering Week 8.
Zac Taylor's squad is over .500 through six games for only the second time in his eight-year heading coaching tenure. The other was 2021, when they advanced to Super Bowl 56.
Four of Cincinnati's five November opponents are under .500. Tennessee comes in 1-6 after last week's 27-24 loss to Cleveland after it had a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
Even though the Titans have gotten off to a slow start in Robert Saleh's first season as coach, all but two games have been decided by one score.
“We just got to keep going through the process of learning how to finish. We have to learn,” Saleh said. “This organization hasn’t won two (straight) games since 2022, there’s been a lot of blowouts. So, we haven’t even been able to recognize or be put in those positions as often. We’ve had five ops (opportunities), we’re 1-4 in those opportunities. And hopefully as we continue to get these ops, they’ll recognize where we need to get better, not only from a preparation standpoint, but from a finishing standpoint.”
One player the Bengals won't have to worry about is Jeffery Simmons, after he was traded by Tennessee to Chicago on Thursday. Simmons 21 quarterback pressures were the most among NFL defensive tackles entering Week 8.
Tennessee (1-6) at Cincinnati (4-2)
When/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, CBS.
Latest odds: Bengals by 10½.
Against the spread: Titans 3-4, Bengals 3-2-1
Last week: Titans lost to the Browns 27-24; Bengals beat the Ravens 35-13
Last meeting: Bengals beat the Titans 37-27 on Dec. 15, 2024, in Nashville.
Series record: Titans lead 41-38-1.
Tennessee RB Tony Pollard vs. Cincinnati LBs Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter. Pollard rushed for a season-high 129 yards last week and scored all three Titans' touchdowns along with three catches for 26 yards. The Bengals are ranked 19th in the league against the run, allowing 116.3 yards per game. Missed tackles continue to be a problem, especially for Carter, who is tied for second among NFL linebackers with seven.
— The Bengals have won four of the past five meetings, and are 8-4 since the NFL realigned its divisions in 2002. The teams were in the AFC Central from 1970 through 2001 and played twice a season.
— Tennessee WR Carnell Tate leads NFL rookies in receptions (34) and receiving yards (413). He needs 87 yards to join Bill Groman (708 in 1960) and Ernest Givins (530 in 1986) as the only players in franchise history with 500 receiving yards in the team’s first eight games of their rookie seasons.
— Titans QB Cam Ward has averaged 5.5 yards per attempt when not blitzed this season, the fewest among qualified passers. He has faced four or fewer pass rushers on 76.2% of drop-backs, the highest rate in the NFL.
— The Bengals have blitzed on 18.5% of opponent drop-backs this season, the lowest rate in the NFL. They are tied for the most sacks (21) and have turned 22.6% of their pressures into sacks.
— Cincinnati's Gesicki has a touchdown catch in four straight games, the longest streak by a tight end in franchise history.
— Bengals K Evan McPherson has made a team-record 22 straight field goals.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) walks off the field at the end of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh talks to journalists after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws under pressure from Baltimore Ravens linebacker Mike Green (15) during the first half of an NFL football game in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is escalating a criminal investigation over an Alaska Senate candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, issuing a raft of new grand jury subpoenas, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Subpoenas seeking grand jury testimony or documents, along with records preservation demands, were issued after The New York Times reported that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as part an alleged effort to confuse voters in the hotly contested race.
More subpoenas were expected to be sent Thursday, according to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe. Neither the recipients of the subpoenas nor the total number of them were immediately clear.
It's the latest aggressive move by the Justice Department in a politically sensitive matter in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's midterm elections. The Justice Department has historically avoided taking overt investigative actions against candidates in the weeks before an election, or other public steps that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome.
The Justice Department for months has been looking into allegations that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race to mislead voters and help Peltola's campaign. The potential targets of the Justice Department’s investigation are unclear, but President Donald Trump earlier this week called for the criminal prosecution of Peltola and her campaign.
The new subpoenas were confirmed by a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe.
Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Fox News interview on Wednesday said he wouldn’t discuss any criminal investigations, but accused Democrats of “cheating.”
“They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running an election, not by running on issues but by putting up a person with the same name,” Blanche said.
The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber. Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Democrat Mary Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.
Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper's reporting “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”
“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the state’s elections board into the matter.
Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens," the president told reporters on his way to a rally in South Carolina. "It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”
Later, as he rallied for GOP Sen. Darline Graham, Trump said he felt Peltola “actually should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted."
Peltola’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on Dunleavy’s order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested the Times’ report was a “distraction” from issues such as Sen. Sullivan’s support of the war in Iran.
“This is just another distraction. It’s another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. “This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions.”
And the situation in Alaska isn't that unusual. Political parties often support extra candidates on ballots to try to pull votes from their rivals. If state courts allow it, legal experts say, the federal government has no role challenging the results.
In Ohio’s Senate race, Republicans have been tied to an effort to boost a socialist on the ballot who would pull votes from the Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Jon Husted.
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance didn’t go as far as Trump did in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted but said he supported a probe into possible election fraud.
“I mean, she is a person who, for months now, has pretended that she has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters, on the ballot,” Vance told reporters ahead of a campaign trip to Texas. “She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful.”
Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”
The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. Alaskan voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan” identified as a “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will not have a party affiliation.
The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola’s team aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting support for the GOP senator.
Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, “I think they should be prosecuted.” He earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. AP writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two for Texas, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - This combination photo shows Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, left, in Palmer, Alaska, Aug. 17, 2026, and a candidate in Alaska's Senate race, Dan Sullivan, right, in Petersburg, Alaska, July 3, 2026. (AP Photos/Mark Thiessen/Becky Bohrer, File)
FILE - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks in the Oval Office of the White House during an event with President Donald Trump, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Mary Peltola, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska, addresses supporters at an election watch party on Aug. 18, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
