Bengals TE Jermaine Gresham and LB Rey Maualuga are among those inside a suddenly optimistic locker room. (AP Images)

During the Bengals four-game losing streak, each week elicited a new round of finger-pointing and blame game. First came the struggles of the No. 2 WR position. Next came secondary. Then Marvin Lewis challenged Rey Maualuga and Andy Dalton to become better leaders. One week later, the defensive and offensive lines needed to set the tone. 

Almost every player found themselves in the crossfire at some point.

Midway through last week, LT Andrew Whitworth heard enough. Coaches and players alike needed to quit the finger-pointing and win a game. Sunday, they did just that.

Only, they didn't just win a game. The Bengals dominated the defending Super Bowl champions in every phase. A glimpse into the potential of a young team uprooted a groundswell of optimism and flushed the frustration of four straight losses into the past.

“Guys are just excited,” Whitworth said. “When you win you feel like all your work kind of paid off for that week. It's good for the guys, especially having a young football team like we do to kind of have a chance at success and build off that, give them confidence to keep doing what they are doing.”

What they're doing is positioning themselves for re-entry into the playoff picture. They look at the weeks ahead and see a manageable schedule where none of the next five opponents own a winning record.

Nov. 18 at Kansas City (1-7)
Nov. 25 Oakland (3-6)
Dec. 2 at San Diego (4-5)
Dec. 9 Dallas (4-5)
Dec. 13 at Philadelphia (3-6)

Temporarily, the season stopped circling the drain. Marvin Lewis posted a list of the teams who've been 3-5 and advanced to the playoffs last week. It was extensive. The list of teams who made the playoffs after falling to 3-6, however, is not so extensive. Clark Judge detailed only three teams since the modern playoff format in 1990 advanced to the postseason. None have done so since 1996.

The talk about urgency finally resonated in the form of a victory Sunday. And that makes all the difference when attempting to keep the team chemistry from breaking down during an extended losing streak.

“You just feel so bad,” S Chris Crocker said. “You just feel such a bad funk when you are on a slide like that – especially games that are close. Those are games that could have gone our way. It's just about building our confidence, getting us feeling back good. Just kind of letting us know what we have been doing, we've been on the right track, we just need to make those critical plays.”

All the high-5s and back-patting can disappear quickly in one NFL week. Nobody knows that more today than the Bengals. But inside the locker room, seeing how dominate they played against the Giants proved running off a streak to the playoffs can be attained.

Considering all the talking that's gone out around here lately, don't expect there to be much assessing the outlook or predicting the future. Lewis and company are leaving that along with the four-game losing streak in the rearview mirror.

“But at the end of the day you can’t talk about it; you’ve just got to do it,” Lewis said. “Too much has been said. We have to do.”

Follow Paul Dehner Jr. for Bengals updates on Twitter at @CBSBengals.