Cincinnati Bengals: Pros and cons from 2021 schedule

Cincinnati Bengals 2021 Schedule Pros and Cons

Pro: Bye week is at a good spot

One of the first things I look for when a schedule is revealed is where the bye week is located. For the Bengals, it’s in a near-perfect spot, taking place in Week 10. This means Cincinnati’s bye comes just at the halfway mark of the season.

They’ll have played nine games by this point and then have the final eight games on their schedule waiting for them when they return. The game before the bye is against the Browns and then when Cincinnati returns, they’ll head to Las Vegas to play the Raiders. The bye will help them prepare for what could be a sneaky-tough game.

Con: Final three games… Oof

While the Bengals do close out their season with plenty of home games, the final three-game stretch is going to be really tough for this group. They’ll host the Ravens and Chiefs in back-to-back weeks and then head to Cleveland for the final game of the season.

Even a Super Bowl-contending team would look at the Bengals’ final three games and think “Yikes” but for a young team like the Bengals, it could be a rough ending to the season for them. Hopefully, they’re at least competitive in these games and it’s not a total butt-whooping like we saw in last year’s finale vs the Ravens.

There’s good and bad with this year’s schedule and while it’s easy to point to the difficulty of Cincy’s schedule, let’s hope the team can exceed our expectations.