Two weeks ago — well, eight days actually — the Cincinnati Bengals snapped their 0-for-9 drought on Sunday Night Football with a 24-18 victory against the Buffalo Bills.
Thursday night, the Bengals will try to obliterate an even bigger skid, one that has them buried as the worst team in the league.
What Is the Cincinnati Bengals’ Record in Prime-Time Road Games?
Since winning a Thursday night game at Philadelphia in December of 2012, the Bengals have lost 14 consecutive prime-time road games in the regular season and playoffs, with “prime time” being defined as night games starting at 6:30 or later ET.
Every other team in the league has at least one road prime-time win during that span.
#Bengals at Ravens Thursday night.
Here is a list of teams ranked by worst winning percentages in road primetime games since 2013: pic.twitter.com/DaO2qXlaP3— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) November 13, 2023
Four of those 14 losses have occurred since Joe Burrow arrived in 2020, as prime time has forever plagued the Bengals franchise.
But there are signs of that starting to change. Since Zac Taylor arrived in 2019, the Bengals are 6-0 in home prime-time games, far and away the best in the league. Taylor often has praised the atmosphere in those games as a reason for the team’s success, and he said it’s a big reason for the struggles on the road.
MORE: Cincinnati Bengals Depth Chart
“The atmosphere obviously is always a step up, and so the communication is at a premium when you’re on the road,” Taylor said.
Making things even more difficult than their own tortured history on Thursday night will be the other side of the equation. When you look at the teams with the best home prime-time records in the last 10 years, the Baltimore Ravens are sitting right near the top — their Week 11 TNF opponent.
The Ravens have the second-best winning percentage in home prime-time games at .800 (12-3). The team that leads the pack at .857 (6-1) is the Jacksonville Jaguars, whom the Bengals will face in a Monday night prime-time game at EverBank Stadium in Week 13.
One of the Ravens’ 12 wins and one of the Bengals’ 14 losses occurred last year in Week 5, when Baltimore prevailed 19-17 at M&T Bank Stadium on a Justin Tucker 43-yard field goal at the gun after the Bengals had taken a 17-16 lead on a Burrow quarterback sneak with 1:58 remaining.
Taylor said he thinks there is value in returning to the same scene just a year later.
“You can picture the environment, so I think that’s a plus,” he said. “We know what we’re walking into, so our guys will be prepared for that and are excited for the opportunity.
“It’s a fun environment,” he added. “Any time you get to play in a standalone game against a good opponent on the road, those are the reasons you sign up to do this job and play in the league and coach in this league.”
The Bengals’ road prime-time struggles did not start in 2013; that’s just the line of demarcation since their last win.
That 34-23 triumph of the Philadelphia Eagles snapped an 11-game road prime-time skid, which means they have lost 25 of their last 26.
All time, their record in road prime-time games is 7-45.
Since Thursday night games became a weekly fixture of the schedule in 2006, home teams are 132-88, but it has tightened up recently. Since 2019, they are just 36-34.
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