The Cincinnati Bengals head into the first Battle of Ohio with the Cleveland Browns in 2024 with the season on the line.

A win in Week 7 would mean advancing to 3-4 on the season before winnable-looking games against Philadelphia and Las Vegas—before they get a rematch with the Baltimore Ravens.

Lose and the record goes to 2-5 and the season is pretty much lost in every way but officially.

Actually escaping Cleveland with a win, though, has proved elusive for the Bengals in recent years, no matter what the Browns have going on at the time.

Here's a look at some key storylines and players to watch.

The reviving DL

The return of Sheldon Rankins played a big role in the defense's sudden ability to look like at least an average unit in the Week 6 win over the New York Giants. The question now is whether that can continue as snap count totals climb at a fast rate for the likes of BJ Hill and Trey Hendrickson. This is especially the case against the Browns when getting depth names like Joseph Ossai on the field really hurts the run defense.

Nick Chubb

Chubb is back after last year's serious injury and will, of course, look to have a big game against one of his team's biggest rivals. It's hard to say just how many snaps he will get as the Browns take things slow. But with how bad the Bengals defense has looked for most of the year, he might not need many chances to change the game.

Zac Taylor

Taylor's somewhat questionable playcalling continued last week, notably late in the win over the Giants. After Joe Burrow got checked for a concussion after a hard hit, the offense ran it twice in a row, then leaned on the quarterback to bail them out on a third-and-12 look. Taylor and his staff will need to be better offensively to escape with a win.

Amarius Mims (and Orlando Brown)

The offensive line collapsed as a unit in Week 6 against the line of the Giants. That happens to be one of the units that best resembles AFC North lines. It was possibly a bad sign of things to come against a Browns defense led by Myles Garrett. The rookie Amarius Mims is an especially big point to watch, especially if he's asked to block Garrett and others without help.

Joe Burrow

Burrow and the offense were out of sync in Week 6, at least in part because the line couldn't handle the Giants. Might that be a blessing in disguise before Myles Garrett wreaks some havoc? Hard to say, but a Burrow playing closer to his MVPish form from a few games ago would dramatically shift the chances the Bengals can steal a win in this one.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Top storylines, players to watch for Bengals vs. Browns in Week 7