Tag: Bengals schedule

Bengals vs. Cowboys won’t be flexed out of primetime

The special Bengals vs. Cowboys Simpsons primetime game can’t be moved.

The Cincinnati Bengals just had a game flexed out of primetime — but it’s not the hyped Week 14 encounter on a Monday night with the Dallas Cowboys.

That particular contest in Week 14 will get the Simpsons treatment via special broadcast.

And that’s the reason it can’t be flexed at all.

Sports Illustrated’s Jay Morrison had the scoop: “For those asking, the Bengals-Cowboys MNF game is not eligible to be flexed out because of all the drawings, voiceovers and other work that has been done for The Simpsons alt-cast that will air that night.”

What looked like a heavyweight cross-conference matchup between two playoff contenders is instead a battle between teams with a combined seven wins, as of this writing.

Even worse, the Cowboys won’t have franchise passer Dak Prescott due to a season-ending injury.

Should both teams keep going the way they have so far, it could be an encounter between two teams with head coaches on the hot seat while prime draft positioning is at stake, too.

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Bengals suffer schedule pitfall and big silver lining with flex

Some very good and some very bad coming out of the Bengals schedule change.

It’s really hard to say whether the Cincinnati Bengals actually benefit from having their Week 16 game against the Cleveland Browns flexed.

The NFL moved the Bengals off the Thursday night primetime game in Week 16, shifting them to a typical Sunday afternoon slot that week.

On the one hand, one of the big sour talking points entering the season was the fact that starting in Week 14, the team had to play three games in a roughly 10-day span. They had a Monday night game on December 9, a Sunday game on December 15, and then a Thursday game on December 19. That’s now gone.

But it comes with a catch, as pointed out by The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr.: “Also, includes the fact they give up an AFC North home TNF game which has been insanely tough on road teams for almost a decade. Nine straight wins for home team dating back to 2015 and twice this year.”

At 4-7 and pretty much every game on the schedule needing to be a win from this point, maybe the Bengals would have preferred to keep the 10-day crunch and that serious dose of home-field advantage.

This is especially the case against an AFC North team like the Browns, who seem to have new life after upsetting Pittsburgh in Week 12.

As always, all of this is moot if the Bengals could actually close out wins. But if they could, they wouldn’t be 4-7, need a perfect close to the season and have conversations like this at all.

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Bengals’ Week 16 game vs. Browns flexed out of Thursday night

A big schedule change for the Bengals.

The Cincinnati Bengals no longer have to worry about another short week this season. The NFL has flexed out their Week 16 game against the Cleveland Browns.

The game was originally scheduled for Thursday, December 19 on Amazon Prime Video. They will now play in the 1 p.m. ET window on Sunday, December 22 on FOX.

Flexing into the Thursday night spot will be the Denver Broncos at the Los Angeles Chargers. That game was originally set for 4:05 Sunday on FOX.

This move is understandable. The Broncos and Chargers both could be playoff teams this season while the Bengals and Browns have a combined 7-15 record, though the Browns did just upset the Steelers Thursday night in the snow.

So, the Bengals have now been flexed into a primetime spot and flexed out of a primetime spot. They do have a Monday night game coming up on December 9 against the Dallas Cowboys, a game that has already been announced as not being flexed out because of the Simpsons production the league is planning for that game.

 

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Bengals schedule: Do the Cincinnati Bengals play today? 

Is Cincinnati playing today? Here’s a look at the schedule and the games to come. 

Will the Cincinnati Bengals be on the field today in Week 10 of the NFL schedule?

The Bengals played in Week 10 already, enduring a short turnaround to a Thursday night game and promptly falling to 4-6 with a 35-34 loss to the Baltimore Ravens despite 428 yards and four touchdowns from Joe Burrow — with 264 and three of those going to Ja’Marr Chase.

Burrow and the Bengals next play in Week 11, a road game against the Los Angeles Chargers that was flexed into the “Sunday Night Football” slot, meaning an 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff on NBC and Peacock.

 

Bengals 2024 schedule

  • Sept. 8: vs.  New England (L, 16-10)
  • Sept. 15: at Kansas City (L, 26-25)
  • Mon. Sep 23: vs. Washington (L, 38-33)
  • Sept. 29: at Carolina (W, 34-24)
  • Oct. 6: vs. Baltimore (L, 41-38OT)
  • Oct. 13: at NYG (W, 17-7)
  • Oct. 20: at Cleveland (W, 21-14)
  • Oct. 27: vs. Philadelphia (L, 37-17)
  • Nov. 3: vs. Las Vegas (W, 41-24)
  • Nov. 7: at Baltimore (L, 35-34)
  • Nov. 24: BYE
  • Record: 4-6

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Bengals’ turnaround to contention isn’t happening this year, says NFL analyst

For one analyst, there’s zero chance the usual Bengals rebound happens.

After the Cincinnati Bengals Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport had takeaways from every game played for each team.

After the Bengals fell 37-17, Davenport concluded that their slow start would be too much for them to overcome to be back in the mix for Super Bowl contention this season, citing issues with the defense and the run game as the best evidence for that.

Here’s some of what Davenport wrote:

Cincinnati still has time to make a postseason push, but no one should expect the Bengals to be in the Super Bowl mix this year. They still have yet to play well on both sides of the ball in the same game, and while Burrow is healthy, even he can’t overcome the many flaws the Bengals possess.

Now, sitting with a 3-5 record and three games behind the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, it is going to be a big uphill climb for the Bengals, but it’s something they have done before, after starting slow multiple times.

There are still nine games to go on the schedule for Cincinnati, so the second half of the season could end up being a completely different story, and NFL experts could be kicking themselves later down the road for doubting what this team could do. But the Bengals have certainly put themselves in a tough spot.

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Bengals reveal official jersey schedule for 2024 NFL season

Here’s the full uniform schedule for the Bengals.

The Cincinnati Bengals slowly rolled back the curtain on the team’s jersey schedule for the 2024 season, highlighting those primetime games and the new orange pants.

Monday, ahead of the preseason finale, the Bengals finally revealed the entire uniform schedule for the season.

That includes the orange pants right in Week 1, which will go with an orange jersey top for what the team is calling an Open in Orange event.

The Bengals will also go with an orange look in Week 13 for an AFC North showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here is a look at the full jersey schedule released by the team:

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Bengals’ lowest win probability next season comes vs. these two contenders

These are the games the Bengals have the smallest chance of winning.

We recently looked at how the Cincinnati Bengals fare on ESPN’s win probability metrics for each game of the upcoming season.

Two of the games on the schedule stick out as tied for the least likely wins.

The first should be obvious — that Week 2 encounter with the Kansas City Chiefs on the road. It’s so early in the season and against such a proven contender, plus the unknowns of the new-look Bengals offense and Joe Burrow’s health, that percentages were never going to look kindly on it.

More notable, though, is that Week 10 game against the Baltimore Ravens, one of the wildest examples of rare rest features of the schedule really working against the Bengals.

There, the Bengals have just a 38 percent win probability, mostly because of the fact the team has to turn around and play the game on just a handful of days of rest after playing the Las Vegas Raiders on November 3.

That November 7 kickoff is in Baltimore against a likely-contending Ravens team that also comes off a short week, but gets to stay home for both of those games over a short stretch.

Plus, considering the trouble the Bengals had in Baltimore last year, it’s no wonder the percentage isn’t all that great.

The next lowest win probability percentage is Cincinnati’s Monday night game in Week 14 (December 9) against the Dallas Cowboys at 41 percent.

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NFL seems to admit it slightly owes Bengals on upcoming schedules

One of those close to the creation of the schedule admits they can’t keep doing this to the Bengals.

Here’s an interesting one about the 2024 NFL schedule for the  Cincinnati Bengals — those in charge know a certain recurring theme will need to change eventually.

That schedule gives the Bengals a second Thursday night game in Baltimore in a row, which didn’t treat the team so well last season, to say the least.

But those who help craft the schedule say that can’t and/or won’t keep happening.

“That’s probably one we’ll keep an eye on moving forward,” Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “We probably shouldn’t play Bengals-Ravens in Baltimore on a short week year after year after year. But like I say, every one of these AFC North games matter. You end up hosting Cleveland instead. I imagine at some point Baltimore will come your way at night.”

While it’s nice to hear those at the controls know this is a possible issue, the Bengals still suffer for the second consecutive season in a row.

This time, the Bengals play that Thursday primetime game in Baltimore after playing against Las Vegas just a few days prior on Sunday.

It’s a brutally short turnaround, and the fact it’s in Baltimore puts the Bengals at a big disadvantage, yet it isn’t the standalone issue with the schedule, given some of the rare rest hiccups that hurt the team next season.

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Bengals are one of NFL’s ‘top-tier teams’ on 2024 schedule

Some interesting insight into why the Bengals have so many big games next season.

The Cincinnati Bengals appear in five primetime games next season on the initial 2024 NFL schedule, with roughly half their games sitting in a national-type spotlight given the presence of late-afternoon kickoffs.

It’s just more proof the Bengals have become a hot commodity for the league during the Joe Burrow era.

Actually hearing it from those in charge of the schedule is always interesting, though.

Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com the following about Cincinnati’s prominent spot on the schedule next season:

“Every time a fan interacts with the National Football League, they’re telling us what they care about. Whether watching television, listening to a podcast, buying a hat or jersey, putting a player on their fantasy team, following someone on Instagram, and the Bengals are getting to be one of those top-tier teams our fans care about week in and week out.”

What’s interesting is how North talks about the late-afternoon kickoffs, too. While not “primetime” games, he told Hobson that those 4:25 p.m. ET kickoffs do 28-30 million people, compared to 16-18 million for a Monday night game.

So, looking at Cincinnati’s schedule that way, it’s pretty clear just how much the league values the Bengals as an attraction right now, which is all based on fan response in the first place.

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How Bengals compare vs. AFC North in terms of rest on schedule

One team in the AFC North tops the NFL in rest advantage next season…and it sure isn’t the Bengals.

The Cincinnati Bengals suffering a setback when it comes to measured “rest” on the 2024 NFL schedule has already been pretty well examined by this point.

What’s interesting, though, is seeing how the Bengals compare in this area to some of their AFC North rivals.

That’s especially the case when, as pointed out by Warren Sharp, the Baltimore Ravens rank better than the rest of the league in this metric.

While those Ravens stand at +16 in the metric, the Bengals are all the way down the board at minus-two.

Pittsburgh and Cleveland are between the two extremes at +2.

A look at the rankings:

The unique challenges the NFL has presented the Bengals with the schedule doesn’t mean the season is a concerning one by any means, but it is worth examining at this point of the offseason.

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