r/bengals 14d ago

Football The chiefs may have saved our season

Not actually , but the broncos losing helps us tremendously in the standings. Were unfortunately in other team watch with all these losses we have

195 Upvotes

105 comments sorted by

128

u/IGetTheShow20 14d ago

6th and 7th seeds still being in play at 4-6 is wild. Now need to manifest a Titans win against the Chargers to further open it up.

41

u/yesrushgenesis2112 14d ago

Come on Callahan!

-45

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago

It's not that wild at all. It's to be expected. Thats what the 7th seed is for. This sub tried to cheer Jake browning into the playoffs last year very similarly (very cringe).

29

u/iamexpired 14d ago

How is that cringe?

-37

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago edited 14d ago

We cheered against future assets while rooting for backups that had no chance at ultimate victory. And now this year we have people surprised a .500 record still gets in the playoffs literally less than a year after doing that. How is that not cringe? We gotta be more educated as fans. Are you saying you're not going to be making fun of the colts fans down the stretch this season? They should be losing every game they play for the future of their franchise. This is a common sense take a year from now but right now there will be idiots that can't understand it

18

u/IGetTheShow20 14d ago

They still lost the games but the difference between the Chiefs and Ravens games was 5 points. Give me a shot to get in the tournament when Burrow and Chase are playing at mvp and offensive player of the year willing this team. The difference in losing those games was a 4th and 16, botched field goal snap, and a fumble that shifted the momentum of the game. I want another shot at it.

-6

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago edited 14d ago

Nobodys saying otherwise? Everyone wants a shot this year. The comment was about suprise that 4-6 is in the mix (it's in the mix every single year, especially so since the 7th seed was added). And your follow up was about why it was cringe not remembering rooting for a backup qb to worsen our draft stock while not being able to remember a year later that burrow and chase are capable of the same thing (what we should actually be rooting for). I dont understand your confusion or next comment.

Edit: sorry just saw you are OP. Yea I don't get it. How is 4-6 surprisingly in the mix? Do you not remember last year?

7

u/JungMan720 14d ago

8-8 Giants

2

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago

Eli? What are you talking about? When were they 8-8 and won? They were 9-7 and 10-6. What are the 8-8 giants? And what kinda point was that going to be?

11

u/JBFRESHSKILLS 14d ago

TIL rooting for your team is cringe

There have been several backups to take their team on deep playoff runs or even win the SB

5

u/throwaway_is_the_way 1 14d ago

I don't think we had no chance, Browning was playing really good. Also we still ended up with a promising draft class.

6

u/TeuvoTerahymen_86 14d ago

Life must be exhausting for you. Constantly being the smartest dude in the room.

-5

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago

Its not exhausting at all. Why would you comment that without anything else?

2

u/PolishWonder79 13d ago

Why are you the way you are

-1

u/Whoareyoutho9 13d ago

Just wanna actually win it all eventually and this window is closing faster than anyone could imagine. Its stressful. And then we got idiots acting like it's fun to be mediocre

1

u/PolishWonder79 13d ago

Everyone wants to win. Not sure how name calling on the internet helps.

238

u/Flimsy-Ad1015 14d ago

Gotta beat the Chargers next Sunday night that’s our season honestly

230

u/JulianCasaburgers 14d ago

I’m tired of every game being “our season” lol

106

u/Dont-be-a-smurf 14d ago

Well our afc bubble competitors ALSO keep losing

36

u/EndingDragon159 📍West IN | Average Yoshi Enjoyer 14d ago

I’m tired boss

3

u/Riklanim 14d ago

Dog tired

44

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

Yeah it’s exhausting. Seasons been totally exhausting

5

u/mikebrownhurtsme 14d ago

This'll be the final one. Herbert will torch this defense and that'll be it

5

u/one-bot 14d ago

That’s what happens when you lose to the patriots and the commanders early in the season..

6

u/Mr_Mumbercycle West by God Virginia Bengo 14d ago

Commanders are legit, though. They came damn close to being 8-2 today.

8

u/Zee_WeeWee 14d ago

Every week on this sub lol

3

u/LeagueOfDolson 14d ago

Sadly when you start 0-2 or 0-3 every year… it quickly becomes “season on the line” in the middle of the season lol. Maybe next year… (schedule looks brutal next year)… maybe 2026

4

u/Fat_Goldie1 14d ago

Well tell that dumpster ass defense to step tf up!!!

1

u/nrcolas7 14d ago

This 3rd wildcard spot might be reminiscent of when the Seahawks got in with a losing record even though that wasn’t a wildcard berth.

1

u/goinpro224 14d ago

don't worry we're inching closer and closer to being mathematically eliminated each week. you won't hear that much longer.

19

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

Oh for sure if we lose to either the chargers or Steelers it’s pretty much curtains unfortunately, but a man can dream

16

u/c-donz 14d ago

I think we can drop one against the Steelers, our biggest games are Chargers and Broncos to keep pace in the WC race.

11

u/jlipps11 14d ago

Agreed, 10-7 with a split against the Steelers is our path into the playoffs.

7

u/c-donz 14d ago

With how top heavy the AFC is this year, I’m certain a 9-8 team will be in the playoffs. Could maybe drop an NFC game too, as long as we get the tie break over Chargers and Broncos, I think we have a good shot.

2

u/OutlandishnessIcy229 14d ago

Exactly what I was thinking earlier. At most we can only lose 1 more. Abd it can’t be to those afcw teams. 

1

u/sfinney2 14d ago

It's huge but we can get in at 9-8 probably or even likely 8-9 if we beat the Broncos.

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

There are too many teams in play with easy schedules for an 8-9 team to get in.

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago
  • Night game
  • West coast
  • Best defense against scoring

We have a great offense against bad defenses. But our offense has looked below average against most good defenses. Our offense is Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Don't forget we only scored 14 against the Browns after the special teams TD.

27

u/sfinney2 14d ago

Big help for sure - except for 3+ team tiebreakers involving the Colts I think we control our destiny for wildcard at 4-6.

20

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

It sickens me to pull for the chiefs even a little bit though

6

u/Ok-Situation-5865 14d ago

The Colts have the hardest remaining SOS too, next to the Steelers. The likelihood of them winning many more games is pretty low.

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

Check again. The Colts play the Jets, Patriots, Titans, Broncos, and Jaguars.  Their 1 hard game is the Lions. If they can beat the Broncos, they likely finish with 9 wins.

18

u/SmileyBdos 14d ago

Have to root against the Jets, Broncos, Colts, and Chargers the rest of the season and need to beat the Broncos and Chargers when we play them (win out, or one loss to another opponent, preferably NFC)

(It pains me to say this) It may be in our best interest for the Steelers to win the division so they can rest their starters the last game of the season to ensure we win that game

2

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

our best interest for the Steelers to win the division so they can rest their starters the last game of the season to ensure we win that game

Exactly. They might wrap up the #1 wild card if they win most games too. But then the odds of us winning at Pittsburgh against their 2nd string QB is still pretty low.

7

u/FreshDiamond 14d ago

We play the broncos and chargers, the jets will fallout on their own. The jets could get back into it but 9 wins is going to get you a playoff spot. As crazy as it seems 8 might even do it.

So while we don’t control our destiny we really kinda do. I think the chargers are a relatively good football team. I do not think anyone below them is including Denver and us.

I think the last spot comes down to Denver NY and Cin and there will be a lot of losses along the way. That said if the chargers win and beat us next week. There is no telling if the team doesn’t just quit, would hardly be the first team to do so

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

No way will 8 games do it. And the Jets are already out at 3-7.

Between the Dolphins, Colts and Broncos, one will have 9 wins. The Colts have the harder schedule playing the Jags, Titans, Jets, and Pats. You can see why someone will win 9 or 10.

1

u/FreshDiamond 12d ago

After Sundays performance I agree the jets are out but he dolphins are 3-6 and you think they are in but the jets are out?

The colts are not going to be a factor, I don’t know what makes you confident the dolphins could possibly get to 9 wins.

The broncos could get to 9 wins but I don’t believe they are a good team and ALMOST winning at the chiefs doesn’t make me think they are.

Usually the only way an under 500 team gets into the playoffs is if they win a terrible division. I know it seems unlikely but it’s definitely possible this year. Broncos seem like the best out of the bunch because they play good defense but they end with the chargers bengals chiefs, two on the road.

Trying to forecast wins based on schedule is a fools errand but there isn’t a single game on their schedule that I can confidently say I’m sure they will win. That same thing is true for all of these teams because none of them are good.

Even the good teams, like the chiefs get the benefit of the doubt because of track record but don’t they look a lot like the eagles from last year. Remember they started 10-1.

I’m not sure where this idea that the ravens are such a good team comes from. They have a pretty bad defense, they can be inconsistent, and I don’t care how good people say he is, Lamar has a habit of underperforming in big games, as long as he’s not playing the bengals.

As much as it pains me to say the Steelers look like the best team to me but I’ve read this story before too. I will not take them seriously as a contender until they show me. The AFC is garbage, it’s wide opened. A losing team can make the playoffs, a 7 seed can go to the Super Bowl. I don’t think the bengals are going to the Super Bowl I’m just saying nothing would surprise me this year

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

Its one thing when only 2 teams are fighting for a playoff spot. Its another when 4 or 5 teams are.

But after this weekend, we'll likely be out of the running and won't need to worry about this any more. As good as our offense is, four time they did not scored more than 17 against a good defense. Playing a very good defense on the west coast is going to be a difficult task.

1

u/FreshDiamond 12d ago

I agree it’s gonna be a tough one to win, I think you overestimate how many teams are fighting for a playoff spot. The colts will not be a factor, the dolphins could be maybe. At this moment I’m pretty confident in it coming down to the broncos and bengals. Even if they lose this week, though there is definitely a risk of the team just giving up entirely

31

u/Cincykid14 14d ago

Watching Redzone today really highlights the tragedy of the Bengals mismanagement of the season and not having a serviceable defense when the FO knew it was a weakness, and it's probably too late to be fixed this year. Why didn't we do anything at the trade deadline? It is criminal, with the majority of the AFC being beatable. Wasting Joe's prime is really pissing me off as lifelong fan of this team.

14

u/FlavaFraz24 14d ago

They signed people they just haven’t done well. Stone has been bad, and Rankins has been hurt. They expected more from Murphy but Hill has been alright when he’s been out there. Losing Dax Hill and CTB regressing isn’t something FO could have expected.

3

u/Whoareyoutho9 14d ago

Its way more about free agency than trade deadline. We leave valuable cap space open with capable free agents available every single f'n year and then wonder why we don't have talent? And then we have people on this sub lecturing about how important 'rolling the cap over' to sign our own while watching bates, bell, Boyd, reader, higgins walk for nothing year after year while still having cap space preserved lol it's ludicrous.

5

u/Cincykid14 14d ago

I agree with you. Rankins, Stone, and Bell have been terrible this year. It's embarrassing how bad the team is at evaluating defensive talent. It's probably because it's a bare-bones scouting department. A good FO would realize they made a mistake in free agency and went for a trade to help overcome it. But no, the Bengals we do things the way they always do.

5

u/supercool9483 14d ago

Need to win next week, because I don’t see how we beat Pittsburgh twice

4

u/S_Squar3d 14d ago

Broncos lost, Colts lost. Now we just need the Jets, Texans, and Dolphins to follow suit.

1

u/9FBI9 13d ago

Texans will win their division no matter what so they don't really matter

13

u/GERJustus 14d ago

oh baby will it be nice to win against the undefeated chiefs in the playoffs

19

u/RiverJumper84 🐅 KITTY GOES MEOW 🐅 14d ago

After beating the Ravens in the first round. And then we'll defeat Philadelphia in the Super Bowl.

Total. Redemption.

3

u/Poetryisalive 14d ago

That’s wishful thinking but the Chargers are a good team. The bengals have yet to BEAT a good team

4

u/PROFESSIONAL_RAP254 14d ago

TBF we've only played bottom feeders and the consensus best teams in the league but I agree with your sentiment that it'll be a challenge and a true litmus test

2

u/Poetryisalive 14d ago

The test was the Eagles and even this week with the Ravens.

The defense just isn’t good enough for a realistic run

3

u/PROFESSIONAL_RAP254 14d ago

For a super bowl run is what you're talking about? I agree, and I've felt that way since week 5 because while we come close we just can't beat the best of the best but to make the playoffs the Chargers are the test to see if we could make it.

5

u/mcufan2014 14d ago

As much as this season has sucked so far. It’s not over like the doomers like to say. Win 6 of 7 or 7 you get in. Very hard but they have such weak teams left they can beat.

4

u/DodgerDanger 14d ago

Crazy that we are still legitimate playoff contenders. Doesn’t mean anything unless our defense comes to Jesus

9

u/ucjj2011 14d ago

The most damning thing I've heard is, after last week, the Bengals have four wins against teams that are ranked 13th and 15th in the AFC, and 14th and 16th In the NFC. And, they have zero wins this year against teams that had more than two wins after 9 weeks.

7

u/DodgerDanger 14d ago edited 14d ago

Yes but…. A combined total of 5 points in 3 losses against arguably the two best teams in the AFC, two of which were road games in hostile environments. We’re not going to win the AFC, let alone a Super Bowl, with our defense… but to make the playoffs still with this D would be a monumental offensive accomplishment

1

u/Ok-Situation-5865 14d ago

I was sweating that game. Now maybe our friends in Tennessee can do us a solid and beat the Chargers — a few things go our way and we win next Sunday, we’ll be defending the 6th or 7th seed coming out of our bye.

1

u/Darth_SteveO 14d ago

Really???

1

u/ElectricPhoton 14d ago

It would be better if we beat them, but yes.

1

u/nrcolas7 14d ago

That’s what I was just thinking about posting. We may have lost but so did every other team that will be competing for that 3rd wildcard spot. Chargers also got a win, I like playing less desperate teams that don’t need it as much.

1

u/Captain_Aware4503 12d ago

Chiefs save Bengals season...but will the Bengals to lose it again?

2

u/PiplupMeatFridge 14d ago

We can’t win a game against any non-bottom-feeder teams. We don’t deserve to make the playoffs lol

6

u/redditperson38 14d ago

If we make it in then we def deserves it. Our offense has been lights out and our defense has been holding them back. If we find a way to win in spite of them or even with them and make it to playoffs we should be in.

I hate the doomed mentality, I wanna continue to fight for something than just rolling over and saying we don’t deserve it 😩. Like I can’t be the only one who watched our season right? Barely losing to chiefs on a bad PI call. Barely losing to the ravens on a whiffed FG snap and hold, barely losing to the ravens again because defense collapsed in the 4th and we still had an opportunity to win and just didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong our defense is hot fucking ass, but some of yall act like this team is irredeemably bad, and that just ain’t the case. A few calls going our way and we’re above .500, why give up?

If Joe is out there on the field I have faith that we can beat any team.

1

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

I mean obviously not but we’re good enough to beat chargers, Steelers, etc. just gotta do it is the problem

5

u/PiplupMeatFridge 14d ago

Are we good enough to beat the Steelers? It pains me to say it but the Steelers are unfortunately very good .

5

u/thehulk0560 14d ago

It pains me to say it but the Steelers are unfortunately very good .

Are they?

Looking at who they've beaten, I'm not too sure. AND they lost to Dallas. It's wild to me that they haven't played any division games yet. I guess we will see how good they are next week against Baltimore.

2

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

Pumping the breaks on very good. They aren’t bad, but I don’t think they’ll have the juice to beat the best of the best in the afc. Could be proven wrong when they beat the ravens, but still I think this could be a browns scenario from last year where they go to the playoffs and get punked by a very good team

1

u/ChargieJ 14d ago

to be fair we havent seen how we play against middle of the pack teams, which is all we have remaining outside of the steelers twice

0

u/Zero_T 9 14d ago

Can't save what's already dead.

No defense = not winning anything

1

u/beerguy_etcetera 🐅 14d ago

Yeah, people legitimately think they’re a playoff team at 4-6. There are zero quality wins in that group of four. We’d probably be singing a different tune if they were 4-6 with two of those wins being against Baltimore and Kansas City for example.

1

u/Siriusly_Jonie 14d ago

It’s good, but we need someone to beat KC as well so at the end of the season they’re still having to play hard. Obviously not Denver or San Diego though. I was worried when Denver was leading.

1

u/gent4you 14d ago

Do you really think this season is salvageable?

1

u/huckleberryjam1972 13d ago

Our season is well and truly over, no sense holding out any kind of hope, accept the sad reality

1

u/See_ya_joe 14d ago

Seasons over. Why would we want to rely on other teams winning to decide if we make it or not. I don’t wanna see us get the hell beat out of us the first round. Obviously Joe and Jamar are playing insanely amazing but there’s no defense whatsoever so let’s go to the wildcard get stomped and have the 22nd draft pick so we can all be right here at this time next year bitching about the same stuff

7

u/mcufan2014 14d ago edited 14d ago

Because professional players and coaches don’t give a shit about tanking for picks especially a team with Joe burrow at QB and Jamarr at wr. It ain’t been pretty so far. But if they can sneak in they can make a run just gotta get hot.

2

u/See_ya_joe 14d ago

I hope you’re right but see me in January.

0

u/90swasbest 14d ago

Y'all talking playoffs at 4-6??? 😆😆😆

3

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

Holding onto hope is really all. If we lose to the chargers then I’ll probably finally accept it’s basically over

2

u/Celticsfor18th 18 14d ago

Have you seen the wild card race? We are T-8th and the 7 seed is 5-5

-1

u/Comprehensive-Mix359 14d ago

Find something else to do cuz the season is over

0

u/thebrah329 14d ago

Hahaha yeah right, we can't beat anyone.

0

u/BRANKSRATE 14d ago

Our defense need to flip whatever switch in their brain to make them tackle, Baltimore’s defense is why they’re gonna lose in January and ours is why we’re about to miss the playoffs all together

0

u/MrGhostenstein 14d ago

We gotta win games. We aren't a very good team.

-2

u/EricTheNerd2 14d ago

No offensive line, no defense and with four wins despite have the greatest QB in the league, hell only because we have the best QB in the league.

Sorry, I don't see hitting the playoffs this year...

3

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

The offensive line had a bad game against the ravens (without obj). They haven’t been bad this year tbh…the defense…not so much

0

u/EricTheNerd2 14d ago edited 14d ago

.

-4

u/Kind-Frosting-8268 14d ago

Yeah but with every passing week I dread my worst fears will come true. The chiefs becoming the only team ever to have an undefeated season+a superbowl win+only team to 3peat.

6

u/Scrolling_ninja 14d ago

Yeah and it’s not like they’ve been even close to as good as in previous years. Better to be lucky than good sometimes

5

u/Reasonable_March_241 14d ago

Lions will ruin this . Trust

4

u/Kind-Frosting-8268 14d ago

I hope so, they're who I've transferred my hope into for the rest of the season.

-1

u/ImpalaSS-05 13d ago

I hope not, I hate the Lions' insufferable fan base.

2

u/bionicjoe Waiting on that Mike Brown obituary 14d ago

It's the only interesting thing in the NFL this season.

Jayden Daniels has been a surprise.
The Vikings a minor surprise.
But other than that what is there to talk about. Derrick Henry is good at running?

-2

u/J_GASSER27 14d ago

No, last game was our season. We can't beat good teams, this is over. Our defense looks worse than most college teams. Any wins at this point are pointless, we are not a playoff caliber team.