Given how wild this season has been so far, it’s a little easy to forget the Cincinnati Bengals will be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” soon.
Forgot, right?
HBO will debut a new effort called “Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North” on Tuesday, December 3 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
The decision stems from last year’s AFC North, featuring all four teams ending the season with winning records.
And the Bengals should be absolute must-see material on the show for a bunch of reasons:
- Another slow start and potential rebound
- Joe Burrow’s MVP performance
- Ja’Marr Chase’s contract drama
- Possibly Trey Hendrickson’s contract drama from over the summer
- Tee Higgins’ franchise tag and two different injuries
- Key miscues, like play-calling and the infamous missed field goal against the Ravens
- Multiple instances of scrapped gameplans at the last second and once due to…
- ….the Jermaine Burton saga, which culminated in his missing the walkthrough this past Saturday, getting a gameplan around him ruined and Joe Burrow mad.
- Whatever the team does or doesn’t do at the trade deadline
Granted, the show will feature four teams, not just one, and wants to zero in on the playoff race and into the postseason.
But some of the above topics and whatever else happens will likely come up, too.
By the time the show debuts, the Bengals will have played three more AFC games. They’ll either be right back in the race or we’ll be questioning if this is the end of the Zac Taylor era after wasting a year of prime Burrow.
The show was already must-watch material. Now? It’s slowly morphing into a show fans might grimace while watching.
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