Bengals don’t get much help in playoff race during bye week

The Bengals will need to keep winning to stand a chance.

The Cincinnati Bengals started their bye week getting some help on Thursday night when the Cleveland Browns upset the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Those Steelers were tops in the AFC North and fell to 8-3 with the loss.

The Week 12 weekend was more mixed for the resting Bengals. Tennessee knocked off Houston in an upset, bringing the Texans down to 7-5. But Miami stomped New England to move to 5-6.

Later, Denver moved to 7-5 as 2-9 Las Vegas couldn’t pull off the upset despite leading at halftime.

Not the best help overall from a Bengals perspective. As is the case with any possible results from here on out, all that matters is the Bengals keep winning games.

That starts in Week 13 against those Steelers, then even in primetime against the Dallas Cowboys, the only non-AFC team remaining on their schedule.

Monday night, at least, features a showdown between seven-win AFC teams Baltimore and the Los Angeles Chargers.

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