Three Biggest Games: Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals spent most of last season as Super Bowl frontrunners. But when the talented team reached the playoffs for the seventh time under polarising head coach Marvin Lewis, many of Cincy’s old demons returned to once again deny the Bengals that elusive playoff win and keep their agonising drought alive. Old rivals will be the theme throughout the regular season as the Bengals try for that holy grail once more in 2016.
Week 2 at Pittsburgh
The team that extended that playoff losing streak to a league-worst 26 years is early on the schedule this season. The Steelers powered through injuries, injustice and inclement weather just long enough to see the Bengals self-implode en route to an impossible victory in last year’s wild card round. This time, it will be the Bengals entering hostile territory for their second of three games without playmaking linebacker Vontaze Burfict. Despite its earliness, this divisional clash could prove crucial in deciding the king in the North come January.
Week 6 at New England
If Cincinnati still is, in fact, the cream of the crop in the AFC, they’ll have to prove it with a monster performance in Foxboro. Could this finally be the year Tom Brady’s age gets the better of him? We won’t know for sure by the time this game comes around – though that won’t stop anyone from wildly speculating. But with Peyton Manning’s retirement, there is a place to be filled in the conference’s “first round bye†department. The rest of the AFC is housed by a number of teams trending upwards, but this game is a must-win if the Bengals want to lay legitimate claim to first place.
Week 16 at Houston
The “thorn-in-the-side†Texans handed the Bengals their first loss of 2015: an embarrassing, utterly forgettable 10-6 defeat at home on Monday Night Football. Houston’s big budget signing at quarterback, Brock Osweiler, means the team will be more than happy to see him start this clash over Bengal killer T.J. Yates, who currently is no sure thing to return to the Texans in 2016. In their last game of the calendar year, the Bengals will appear in the 8:30pm slot on Christmas Eve, meaning “primetime Bengals†jokes will again ring in cosy homes across the nation. Cincy will be desperate to take care of business with the playoffs looming.
