Carlos Dunlap earns AFC Defensive Player of the Week

Bengals’ defensive end Carlos Dunlap has been named the AFC’s Defensive Player of the Week, an honor that wasn’t too surprising given his performance against the Jets.

Dunlap recorded seven tackles, a pass deflection, and most importantly three sacks. He looked like a one man wrecking crew at times, and he was a huge reason why the Jets could only muster six points against Cincinnati’s defense.

It should also be noted that Dunlap dedicated his dominant performance to his mom, so I’m sure that makes this award just a little more special.

This will be the third time Dunlap has earned this award in his career. He is already the Bengals career sack leader with 78 (closely followed by defensive tackle Geno Atkins with 75.5).

Dunlap’s three sack performance was more than he had accumulated all season. He is currently sitting at 5.5 sacks on the year, with 4.5 coming in his past three games. His recent boost in productivity has really coincided with the whole defense playing better as a whole. The entire defensive line has just been more disruptive compared to earlier in the season, and it should come as no surprise that Dunlap is one of the major driving forces behind its improvement.

Throughout this tough season, Dunlap has openly been one of the strongest locker room presences to help keep this team from turning on each other, so it is great to see him rewarded like this.

If this team is going to be closing out the season strong, you can bet that Dunlap will be one of the major reasons for their success. There is also no question who will be having the most fun on the field.