Your point is good, but the Bengals lost to the Steelers week 1 in the craziest game and then to the Cooper Rush Cowboys in week 2. The games you cite are preseason games. They also lost to the Ravens 19-17 in week 5 where Burrow looked lost and to the Browns 32-13 in week 8. But then they went into the bye week, everyone stayed in Cincinnati, and they installed a quicker offense to account for the poor OL play. They didn't lose again until the AFC CG.
FWIW, everyone here likes to talk about Zach Taylor outcoaching McDermott, but the entire city of Cincinnati wanted him fired after the week 5 loss to Baltimore.