The Bengals have to beat the Steelers, but they also need the Miami Dolphins (8-8) to lose on the road to the N.Y. Jets (4-12) and the Broncos (9-7) to lose at home to the Kansas City Chiefs (15-1), who already clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC and are expected to rest starters.
Denver had a chance to clinch with a tie or win at Cincinnati this past Saturday, but the Bengals pulled out the win with a little over a minute left in overtime on Tee Higgins’ third touchdown catch of the game.
“We’re finding our way back into it,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said after Saturday’s win. “We still need a little help, but all we can do now is go control what we can control and try to get a big win next week.”
Indianapolis (7-9) was eliminated with a loss to the N.Y. Giants on Sunday, but the Dolphins stayed alive with a win at Cleveland.
The Bengals could have avoided their current situation by winning one of the seven games they lost by a touchdown or less. Three of them were by three points or less, including an 41-38 overtime loss to Baltimore and one-point defeats at Baltimore and Kansas City.
Four weeks ago when the Bengals lost 44-38 to Pittsburgh at home to fall to 4-8, making the playoffs seemed out of the question. Chances are still slim because of the other results that need to happen, but Cincinnati has something to play for in Week 18 and that didn’t seem possible a month ago.
“We know we’ve had a good football team all along,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “In those games, it’s disappointing that we came up short. It didn’t change our process. It didn’t change what our guys believed in. We didn’t have to change everything we did. We still believed in what we were doing and now we’ve won four in a row, and now we’ve got to make it five in a row.”
Beating the Steelers in primetime on the road will be no easy task, although the Bengals are on a four-game winning streak and Pittsburgh has lost three straight. The Steelers are 8-2 in their last 10 home primetime games and 9-2 all-time against the Bengals in home primetime games with Cincinnati’s lone wins coming in 1985 and 1995.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
This is the Bengals’ fifth primetime road game this season, something no other NFL team has ever done, and they are playing their sixth primetime game overall this season, including a home loss against the Commanders in Week 3. Cincinnati is 2-2 on the road in primetime this season with wins at the Giants and Cowboys.
Road teams in AFC North primetime matchups are 2-13 since 2019, and Cincinnati has been put into five of the last eight of those situations without a win since 2020.
Pittsburgh has already clinched a playoff spot, but could be playing for the AFC North title if the flailing Browns somehow manage to pull off a win over Baltimore on Saturday afternoon. Regardless, the Steelers will have something to play for with the No. 5 seed on the line.
The Chargers could leapfrog the Steelers in playoff seeding for the chance to play at Houston, which has lost two straight and three of its last five games.
The Bengals will view Saturday’s matchup like a playoff game and hope a win can get them in.
“We know we can hang with anybody,” Burrow said. “We’ve proven that this year. We’ve played every single team close. So, it’s just about making the plays down the stretch to win those games. (Saturday), we did. The last four weeks we have, and we’ve got to continue to do it.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Steelers, 8 p.m., ESPN, ABC, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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