By Paul Dehner Jr., Tashan Reed, Vic Tafur and Tobias Bass

With a record of 3-5, Cincinnati's playoff hopes appeared slim heading into Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders. However, they bounced back from last week's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles with a 41-24 win at Paycor Stadium.

Accordingly The Athletics According to the playoff prediction model before kickoff, the Bengals had a 36 percent chance of making the playoffs and just an 8 percent chance of winning their division. Their chances improved slightly and they made it outnumbered.

Joe Burrow had one of his best games this season as he caught a career-high five touchdown passes while completing 27 of 39 passes for 251 yards. Offseason newcomer Mike Gesicki reached the end zone twice as he caught his first touchdown in his new threads and finished with five catches, 100 yards, two touchdowns and another incredible griddy dance.

Las Vegas has rotated quarterbacks this season between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell. With O'Connell out for four to six weeks with a thumb injury, Antonio Pierce decided to sub Minshew for Desmond Ridder in the third quarter.

Cincinnati will look to improve its playoff chances on “Thursday Night Football” in Week 10 against the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens. As for Las Vegas, they will try to regroup during their bye week.

Burrow shines brightly

No matter how much chaos or injuries happen around Burrow, his presence alone will almost always be enough to beat the bottom teams in this league. Let's take Sunday for example. He was without Tee Higgins (quad), Jermaine Burton (healthy scratch), Charlie Jones (knee), Orlando Brown Jr. (knee), Zack Moss (neck) or Erick All Jr. (knee). Still, he used almost every other receiver he could consider and found a way to utilize each one.

He went off script on four of his five touchdown passes to score points off broken plays to Chase Brown, Mike Gesicki, Drew Sample and Andrei Iosivas. Burrow completed passes to eight different players, all for a gain of at least nine yards. When he's in a situation like that, a team like Las Vegas has no chance without counterattack. — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals beat writer

Las Vegas' nightmarish defensive performance

Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said on Halloween Thursday that he would be afraid if someone showed up in a Burrow costume. Nightmares came true Sunday when Burrow threw five touchdowns in the Bengals' win.

After a kneel-down at the end of the first half, the Bengals scored on their first five possessions to take a 31-10 lead. The Raiders didn't have much of a pass rush on Burrow all day, and when they did, Maxx Crosby was called for a late score after the final whistle and Burrow passed him 10 yards on another play.

Burrow didn't even miss the injured Higgins, as running back Chase Brown had five catches for 37 yards and a touchdown to go with 120 yards rushing. Burrow also threw to all four of his tight ends 13 times for 152 yards and three touchdowns, helping the Bengals improve to 4-5 and keep their playoff hopes alive. The Raiders' defense gets next week off after the team lost its fifth straight game. – Vic Tafur, Raiders senior writer

No Higgins, no problem

Many eyes will be on the injury report this week as next up is a critical game on Thursday night in Baltimore. Erick All injured his knee and BJ Hill injured his ribs, both underrated key offensive and defensive players on this team. Additionally, Higgins (quad) and Brown (knee) will try to heal from their injuries. It's hard to imagine Cincinnati pulling off the short-week upset without one or both of them. — Dehner Jr.

Raiders bench Minshew

The Raiders have plenty of issues aside from quarterback, but there's no doubt that Minshew is having a difficult season. He leads the NFL with 11 turnovers, is unable to move the ball down field accurately, navigates the pocket poorly and has erratic accuracy. The highlight is that he was benched twice in nine games in favor of two different quarterbacks. Minshew had thrown two interceptions – including a pick six – when he was substituted for O'Connell against the Denver Broncos in Week 5, but he had a relatively sluggish performance against the Bengals when substituted for Ridder late in Week 3 Quarter on Sunday. He had completed 10 of 17 for 124 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

While Minshew wasn't playing well, it seemed more to do with the score – the Raiders trailed the Bengals 31-10 when he came on – and whether Ridder could add a spark to the offense. Spoiler alert: He didn't. Ridder completed 11 of 16 passes for 74 yards and a touchdown, but was also sacked to set up a Bengals touchdown. The Raiders still lost by three points.

Ridder didn't appear to play well enough to warrant replacing Minshew, and O'Connell won't be eligible to return from injured reserve until Week 13. Therefore, it is possible that Minshew returns as the starter in Week 11 against the Miami Dolphins. — Tashan Reed, Raiders senior writer

The Bengals defense attacks the Raiders

The Bengals defense has proven that it knows how to slow down bad offenses while good offenses destroy them. They have five games against teams with an offensive DVOA in the bottom half of the league. They have allowed an average of 14.2 offensive points per game. In the other four games, they allowed 33.8 points per game. The good news for the Bengals is that they only have one game left (Thursday at Baltimore) against an offense that currently ranks in the top half of the NFL according to DVOA. — Dehner Jr.

Required reading

(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)