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Coming off their bye week, the Bengals still find themselves in the mix in the AFC North race with eight weeks left. Week 10 was very generous to Cincinnati, as 7-loss Miami upset Baltimore and the Steelers managed to tie the winless Lions.
Interestingly enough, the Bengals will be rooting for the Lions again this week as they face a banged-up Browns team. Baker Mayfield is gutting through numerous injuries and WR Donovan Peoples-Jones is also dealing with an injury.
Of course, the Lions have QB injury issues of their own. Jared Goff has an oblique injury and will miss Sunday’s game. Tim Boyle will make his first NFL start.
The Bears have the Ravens this week with Lamar Jackson being 50/50 for the game after being ill last week. A Baltimore loss and a Bengals win would put the two teams even at 6-4 and Cincinnati has the tiebreaker.
If that happens, then the Bengals can take over first place if the Chargers knock off the Steelers in primetime tonight. That would put the Steelers at 5-4-1.
As far as the wild card race goes, it goes without saying that today is a huge game against the Raiders, who also sit at 5-4. The loser finds themselves behind the eight ball in the wild card, especially after New England shutout Atlanta on Thursday to move to 7-4.
Even if Pittsburgh wins tonight, that can still help the Bengals, as the Chargers also sit at 5-4 and currently hold the final spot in the AFC playoffs. So one way or another, tonight’s game will impact the Bengals.
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