It is that time again – time to play the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The AFC North’s most hated team hosts the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday in a marquee matchup that has the attention of the entire country.
This game could could play a big role on the Bengals’ and the AFC’s playoff picture.
Both teams find themselves at the top of the divisional standings with 6-2 overall records. The Bengals are currently ahead of the Steelers due to their 4-0 record within the division. Pittsburgh is 1-1 within the division.
If the playoffs were today, the Cincinnati Bengals would enter as the AFC North champions. The Indianapolis Colts (8-0 – AFC South champs) would enter the playoffs with a bye and home-field advantage throughout.
The two other divisional champs Denver (6-2 – AFC West champs) and New England (6-2 – AFC East champs) would need to use tiebreaking procedures to see which team gets the other bye. The Broncos (5-2 within the AFC) would win the tiebreaker with New England (4-2 within AFC) and Cincinnati (lost to Denver). Meaning New England and Cincinnati would end up hosting first-round wild card games.
Since we are on the subject, if the season ended today, the Bengals and Patriots tiebreaker would be decided by “strength of victory,” which is actually fourth on the list behind “head-to-head,” “best winning percentage in conference,” and “the best winning percentage in common games (min. of 4).”
The Bengals’ “strength of victory” is determined by the winning percentage of the teams that they have been beaten.
Are you confused yet?
I know this is hard for us Bengal fans.
Anyways, at the moment, the Bengals would win that tiebreaker and would play San Diego. The Patriots would play Pittsburgh.
If the Bengals lose against the Steelers, no matter what else happens in the NFL this week, Pittsburgh would catapult to the top spot in the division which would give them the coveted bye. This would happen because Pittsburgh would have a better conference record than New England (even if the Pats can beat Indy this week) and it has the head-to-head tiebreaker against Denver (that tiebreaker won’t be needed at all if Denver losses to Washington this week).
That means if the playoffs were next week after a Cincinnati loss, the Bengals would be forced to go on the road.
A win on the other hand, would put the Bengals in great position to win the division and for a bye due to its easy schedule.
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Good post for the most part – although if you mean the Steelers are the most hated in the AFC North universally (not just Bengals fans), it would be equally accurate to say they’re the most loved. Massive fanbase and all that…
Anyway, even if the Bengals lose this game, they’ve still got the upper hand for winning a tiebreaker against the Steelers. Assuming we win our final game against Cleveland, we’d be 5-1 in division play, which would mean the Steelers would need to win their second Cleveland game and both Baltimore games to tie the 5-1. From there, look at the common opponents tiebreaker, which the Steelers have hurt themselves on by defeating Tennessee and the Bengals have helped themselves by losing to Houston. The only way the Bengals don’t win the common games tiebreaker is if they win against the Jets, and the Steelers lose to the Dolphins… that would mean both teams finished 1-1 in their non-common games, and move on to conference record, which is still up in the air.
In short… it’d be awfully hard to lose a tiebreaker to the Steelers, no matter what happens tomorrow.
Will,
I would also argue the Steelers have a massive fanbase because it is easy to root for a winning team.
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