Cincinnati Bengals 2022 schedule has plenty of difficult games

The Cincinnati Bengals know the path they’ll have to take to get back to the Super Bowl in the 2022 season. Which games are the toughest? 

The Bengals have the third-toughest schedule going into the 2022 season, according to Charlotte Edmonds of NBC Sports. Edmonds explains how she ranked each team by schedule:

"Bettors and sports pundits have a variety of ways to calculate the strength of schedule in the NFL, but the most straightforward and popular method is to calculate the total record of a team’s upcoming opponents and rank accordingly."

This comes as no surprise since the stripes won their division last year. They will have to play all the other division winners in the AFC. They also have to play the AFC East and NFC South plus the Cowboys in that extra 17th game.

At first glance, a few games stick out as being some of the toughest. All division games will always be tough, the toughest for the good guys probably being against the Ravens in Baltimore. We have no idea how Kenny Pickett will be for the Steelers and the Browns are the Browns.

Out of conference, the Bucs with Tom Brady in Tampa will be difficult but they have a new head coach with Todd Bowles. He is an underrated coach but defensive-minded and we have yet to see how he gels with Brady and the offense.

The Cincinnati Bengals will play seven playoff teams in 2022.

The Cowboys in September at AT&T Stadium will be rough. Dallas is always strong early in the season and their potent offense mixed with Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs on defense will stifle Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and the rest of the black and orange.

Given that this game is so early in the season, if the Bengals falter they have plenty of time to bounce back (see the Week 2 loss to Chicago last year). A late-season game comes with the added pressure that a September game might not have.

Even with the tough out-of-conference opponents, the game that could give the Bengals the most pressure is an in-conference game late in the season. The toughest game will come post-bye week.

In week 12 Cincy plays the Titans in Tennessee. The Titans are always a difficult opponent, especially in Nashville, but the Bengals should get past them. The following week our guys are home against the Chiefs.

Round two of the AFC title game will be great!

This is another good candidate for the toughest opponent of the season. The Chiefs improved their defense and made their offense even bigger adding JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdez-Scantling to their receiving core. There is one even harder game on the horizon, though.

Week 16 our guys have to go to Foxborough to take on Mac Jones and the Patriots. New England always play tough at home. Their defense is stout and Mac Jones showed promise but Jones is no Burrow. The Bengals will win here.

The hardest game in 2022 for Cincinnati comes in week 17 against Buffalo. True the game is at home and logic says the harder game should be on the road but last year the Bengals were nearly even between home and road games.

Cincy was 5-3 on the road last year with the last loss coming against Cleveland while Burrow and the other starters sat. This game doesn’t just come deep into the season, but it comes against one of the best teams in the league.

Cincy has not played the Josh Allen-led Bills with Burrow at the helm. It almost happened last season but the Chiefs prevailed in that wild divisional game, tying the game despite getting the ball back with 13 seconds on the clock.

Since there hasn’t been a recent prior matchup Cincy can only rely on tape to prepare for this team. Knowing teams’ in-game tendencies can be a tremendous help. It’s something our guys won’t be able to rely on in this game.

It is also not a stretch to think that this game could be for a home game or even home-field advantage in the playoffs. Clearly, with the Bengals’ postseason performance we do not have to worry about Burrow in big games, but it will still be difficult.

Put all of this together and put it on the national stage and you have a recipe for the most difficult game of the striped guys’ schedule. This game will be on Monday Night for the entire world to see. Thankfully Bengals fans do not have to worry about primetime games anymore with this squad.

Though it will be tough I cannot wait to watch. What do you think? Which game do you think will be the toughest in 2022?