If you just focus on the NFL’s regular season, it’s been a wonderful run for the Cincinnati Bengals. Between 2011-15, the Bengals put together five straight winning seasons. The Bengals averaged 10.4 wins over that span and won a pair of AFC North Division titles. They advanced to postseason play in each of those five seasons but that’s where the happy dance comes to a crashing halt. In all five of those playoff appearances, the Bengals have lost their first postseason game, by an average margin of 12.4 points.
Overall, the Bengals have lost eight consecutive playoff games. In fact, it’s been so long since Cincinnati won in the postseason that their last win was a 41-14 triumph over the Houston Oilers in 1990.
Just 1:36 left on the clock. The Cincinnati Bengals owned the football and a 16-15 lead against the Pittsburgh Steelers in their 2015 AFC wildcard playoff game. It seemed as if a postseason victory would finally be theirs.
Then Jeremy Hill fumbled and Pittsburgh recovered. The Bengals kept Pittsburgh’s drive alive with 30 yards in selfish penalties and the Steelers won 18-15 on a last-second field goal.
It’s been billed as “The Meltdown at Paul Brown” and until the Bengals can find a way to become a disciplined unit, a fact of life that’s haunted this team throughout the tenure of head coach Marvin Lewis, you can’t take Cincinnati seriously as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
If it wasn’t for Paul Brown, there might not be any NFL teams in the state of Ohio. Brown was the original coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1946 and yes, they were named after him.
In 1962, Browns owner Art Modell fired Brown as coach of the team. Six years later, Brown founded a second team, the Cincinnati Bengals and was again the coach. They joined the AFL as an expansion team and two years later, became part of the NFL in the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
That first season of the unified NFL, the Bengals were champions of the newly-minted AFC Central Division, beating among other teams, the Browns, who’d been moved to the AFC Central as part of the merger.
Who Does Cincinnati Bengals Play Next
The first step to formulate a solid betting strategy is to make sure you know everything about the Bengals next encounter, especially the game odds, both of which can be seen below.
Cincinnati Bengals Game Schedule
The details of the Cincinnati Bengals game schedule are right here for your perusal and if betting on the Bengals is part of your plan for the 2016 NFL season, you’ve come to the right place.
Cincinnati Bengals Standings Today
The Bengals will fight with the Ravens for second place in the AFC North for the foreseeable future. Neither team can currently compete with the Steelers atop the division.
How To Make Money Betting On Cincinnati Bengals
Few NFL receivers can match A.J. Green's consistency for finding the end zone. With 10 touchdown catches in 2015, Green hit double digits in TDs for the third time in four seasons.
He caught 11 TD passes in both 2012 and 2013. He also consistently averages about 15 yards per catch and has gone for more than 80 yards on a reception in each of the past three seasons.
He was plagued by injury in 2016, managing to catch only four TD passes.
Green caught more passes in his first three seasons (260) than any receiver in NFL history.
However, it looks as though Andy Dalton, Green and the rest of the Bengals enjoyed the best years between 2011-15. They made five straight playoff appearances but were irreparably damaged by consecutive playoff losses. They are no longer a bonafide division contender and will struggle to qualify for the playoffs. Avoid them as futures bets and dissect the weekly numbers to see if they are viable weekly options.
