3 teams that stand in the Bengals way to make the playoffs

New England Patriots 

Another AFC East team the Bengals should be rooting to lose is the New England Patriots. The Bengals go to Foxborough to take on New England on Christmas Eve, and Cincinnati would love to have a commanding lead on them going into that matchup, considering there will be just two weeks remaining after that game. The good thing for Cincinnati is that the Patriots have just as hard of a schedule as the Bengals do, if not harder. 

They just faced the Bills and still have to travel to Buffalo later in the season, which means they still have games against the Bills, the Dolphins at home, the Bengals at home, Raiders in Las Vegas, who have won their last two games, and the Arizona Cardinals who they will play next week. 

The Cardinals and Raiders have not been good this year, but they still have the talent to compete on any given Sunday. The interesting thing for the Bengals' playoff spectrum is that they can gain a game if they can handle their business against Kansas City on Sunday.

 Buffalo is an 8-3 team right now. They are considered these Super Bowl gurus, and rightfully so. They have the talent to win one, but if they are not careful and lose yet another division game to the Patriots, they could be on the outside looking in come late December. The good thing for Bengals fans and even Chargers fans is that the AFC East still has many head-to-head matchups left. The Bills still have to play every team in the AFC East again.

They also come to Cincinnati in Week 17. There's a good possibility that these AFC East teams beat themselves out of playoff spots by the end of the year.