Updated Bengals playoff chances after Week 15 win vs. Vikings

No one knows how they keep doing it but the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals keep winning games and staying alive in the playoff hunt. They've ripped off three straight wins after sitting at 5-6 with their season looking dead in the water.

With the Bengals playing on Saturday and more games needing to be settled on Sunday and Monday, there is still a lot up in the air with the playoff picture. For now, however, The New York Times has updated playoff odds for the Bengals.

Bengals odds to make the playoffs sit at 32%

The cool thing about this New York Times model is that you can continue to see the odds for each result of the upcoming game. If the Bengals continue their winning ways and knock off Pittsburgh, their chances of making the postseason will increase to 53%. However, if they lose, that percentage plummets to 11%.

If they win in Week 17 against the Chiefs, their odds will sit at 84%. Winning out on the year gives them just shy of 100% chance of making the postseason, which makes sense considering they'd be 11-6 on the year.

When messing around with the model, it appears that if the Bengals drop two more games, their playoff chances decrease drastically. A 9-8 record probably won't be enough to get Cincinnati into the dance so they need to win out and not leave things to chance. That's their slow start to the year coming back to bite them.