The Cincinnati Bengals are on the cusp of playoff elimination this weekend.
Or…on the cusp of keeping thin hopes alive.
Joe Burrow’s 4-9 squad gets eliminated from playoff contention with a loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. They’ve got roughly three percent odds to make the playoffs right now and 27 percent odds to win the AFC North if they win out and finish the season at 8-9, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic.
But 27 percent is 27 percent.
And the AFC North is weird.
As CBS Sports’ John Breech recently broke down, a 7-10 team could technically still win the division. And the Bengals could still win it at 8-9.
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Per Breech, the path to an 8-9 AFC North title for the Bengals isn’t that wild: The Bengals need to win out and the Pittsburgh Steelers need to go 1-3 over their final four games:
“Like the Ravens, the Bengals would need the Steelers to go 1-3, but the upside for the Bengals is that it doesn’t matter which game the Steelers win, so we’ll give them a win over the Browns. In this scenario, the Bengals would win the divisional record tiebreaker by going 5-1 in the AFC North, which would top the Steelers’ 4-2 record.”
It’s not impossible, anyway. The Steelers play the Dolphins, Lions, Browns and Ravens. Superstar pass-rusher T.J. Watt is out at least this week with a lung injury after a mishap during treatment at Steelers facilities.
All the Bengals can do is take care of their own business down the stretch. Easier said than done with Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson out against the Ravens.
Bengals fans know the cliche too: It would be a super-Bengals thing to do, winning out, missing the playoffs and hurting draft positioning in the process.
But the Bengals are alive for at least one more weekend, so Burrow and the Bengals aren’t exactly going to shut it down. If others stumble, perhaps they’ll be in a position to capitalize.
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