Bengals fans won't like latest 2023 season simulation from ESPN

The 2023 NFL regular season is less than a week away and that means everyone is getting their last-minute simulations for the 2023 season in the books. Seth Walder of ESPN posted his simulation for the 2023 NFL season on Monday and Cincinnati Bengals fans will cringe hard after reading it.

The good news in this sim is that the Bengals make the playoffs.

The bad news is that they don't win the AFC North and they fall in the first round of the playoffs to the... drum roll please.... Baltimore Ravens.

So, what happened?

Bengals lose out on division, Super Bowl dreams in latest ESPN sim

Walder writes that the Bengals start off 0-2 once again but this time, they're unable to catch the Ravens, who win the division behind a red-hot Lamar Jackson. Walder's sim had the two teams meeting up in the playoffs, just like last season.

"The Ravens won the division as an 11-win No. 3 seed, while the Bengals finished one game back as the No. 6 seed. The rivals squared off a third time in the playoffs, with the result mirroring the first two. Jackson flourished and the Ravens sacked Joe Burrow five times in a 31-19 defeat to send Cincinnati home."

- Seth Walder

Yikes. This would be a crushing blow to a Bengals team that has Super Bowl aspirations this year.

Not only do the Ravens beat the Bengals in the postseason showdown but they go on to win the AFC, prevailing over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game. Fortunately for Bengals fans, Baltimore loses in the Super Bowl to the Philadelphia Eagles but fans would have to hear all offseason about how the Ravens ended their season and Super Bowl hopes.

It'd be great if this sim was inaccurate because Bengals fans don't want to watch an AFC Championship Game between the Ravens and Chiefs.