The Cincinnati Bengals enter the 2012 season with a chance to erase what has become a 30-year stain.

That’s how long it’s been since the franchise has been able to string together back-to-back winning seasons. It’s been so long, in fact, that only six players on the current 53-man roster were even born when the Bengals followed up their 1981 Super Bowl season with a 7-2 mark in the strike-shortened 1982 campaign.

After going 9-7 and earning a wild-card berth last year, this will be the third time in Marvin Lewis’ 10-year tenure as coach that the Bengals have had a chance to put together back-to-back winning seasons.

The 2005 team went 11-5 and won the AFC North, only to slip to 8-8 in 2006. Another AFC North title came with a 10-6 mark in 2009, but the Bengals followed that with a 4-12 mark in 2010, equaling the largest drop in wins from one year to the next in franchise history.

One thing Lewis learned from 2006 and 2010 is that continuity on the roster doesn’t guarantee a repeat of success. Despite the success and youth that were present last year, there are 15 new faces on this year’s 53-man roster as the team heads to Baltimore for its nationally televised season opener Monday night.

“That’s a good thing,” Lewis said of the turnover. “We’ve talked about that many times. We have to continue to strive to get better. I don’t know what the comparison is to 2010 and ’06 , but I hope it is more this year, because those years didn’t work out.

“We didn’t have anything to rest on and knew that we had to get better,” Lewis continued. “Our other teams in the division got better, and we needed to also.”

In addition to nine rookies, the Bengals brought in veteran cornerbacks with playoff experience in Jason Allen (Houston) and Terence Newman (Dallas). They also signed running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who never played on a losing team in four seasons with New England, and defensive end Jamaal Anderson, who played on three consecutive winning teams in Atlanta from 2008-10.

“Before I was there, they hadn’t had back-to-back winning seasons in Atlanta for a long time prior to our success,” Anderson said. “It’s definitely a mindset. We knew what he had accomplished the year before, but it was never where we wanted to finish. In this league, you can’t ever be satisfied with how things went the year before.”

In addition to the new faces, the Bengals return a solid group of rising stars in second-year quarterback Andy Dalton, second-year wide receiver A.J. Green and third-year tight end Jermaine Gresham, all of whom made the Pro Bowl last year.

A key for the passing game will be to take some defensive pressure off Green, who was limited to nine catches for 98 yards in the final three games last year. Two ways to reduce the attention is to move Green around in the formations as much as possible, and to have one, or more, of the other receivers consistently make plays.

Brandon Tate and Armon Binns have made plays in limited snaps during the preseason, and rookies Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones have showed the potential to become threats as they mature. Also back is slot receiver Andrew Hawkins, an undrafted second-year player who showed the ability to make tough, drive-extending catches on third down last year.

“I think everybody recognizes A.J.’s talent, so there might be times where they try to double-team him and make other guys make plays,” Dalton said. “But we’ve got guys that can make those plays. Guys have to take advantage of it when they get their one-on-ones. We’ve got to complete those balls and make plays.”

The biggest question on offense is the line with a rookie right guard in Kevin Zeitler and a second-year left guard in Clint Boling who has made just three starts. Center Jeff Faine is a 10-year veteran, but he just joined the team 10 days ago after starter Kyle Cook suffered an ankle injury that landed him on injured reserve.

Left tackle Andrew Whitworth is a seven-year vet who has started a team-best 50 consecutive games, and right tackle Andre Smith, who started 14 games in 2011, is starting to show some of the promise that led the Bengals to select him with the sixth overall pick in 2009.

Defensively, the Bengals should be solid again after ranking seventh in the NFL last year in yards allowed per game.

The unit is led by tackle Geno Atkins, who is coming off a Pro Bowl season in which his 7.5 sacks were tied for the most in the NFL among interior lineman, and veteran tackle Domata Peko.

Left defensive ends Robert Geathers and Carlos Dunlap missed most of the preseason with knee injuries, but Geathers is expected to be ready for the start of the season, with Dunlap returning soon after. Michael Johnson will start at right defensive end, with Anderson backing him up.

Rookie tackles Brandon Thompson and Devon Still will round out defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer’s eight-man rotation up front.

“Our plan is to get better than last year,” Peko said. “We were No. 1 for a number of weeks, but we didn’t finish as strong as we started. Our goal this year is to be the No. 1 defense at the end of the day.”

The Bengals also return all three starting linebackers in Thomas Howard, Manny Lawson and Rey Maualuga. Undrafted rookie Vontaze Burfict has shown great potential and while he may not be ready to push Maualuga for a starting spot, he should be a big contributor on special teams.

In the secondary, cornerback Leon Hall appears fully healed from the season-ending Achilles injury he suffered in November. Twelve-year veteran Nate Clements will start at the other corner, with Allen and Newman adding the coverage in nickel packages. Rookie first-round pick Dre Kirkpatrick has been injured most of the preseason, but the Bengals are still hopeful he can be ready to return to practice in a few weeks.

Strong safety Taylor Mays has had a solid preseason and should be a good complement to free safety Reggie Nelson.

If the Bengals are going to string together back-to-back winning seasons, they are going to have to do it against a much more difficult schedule than 2011.

In addition to four divisional games against playoff qualifiers Pittsburgh and Baltimore, Cincinnati also will face Denver, Dallas, San Diego, Philadelphia and the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

“We know the task at hand and the grind we are about to head into and all the challenges the season will throw in front of us,” Lewis said. “I think we got better at receiver. I know we’ve gotten better in the back end on defense. We haven’t gotten an experience to see as much of it yet, but on the defensive line too. We’ve improved the interior of the defense at linebacker with (Vontaze) Burfict. At safety, there’s no doubt we got better there.

“The guys are in a good place, a good state of mind with the excitement and anticipation of the season, which is where we ought to be.”