Bengals Facing NFL's Toughest Second-Half Schedule Flip

Things are about to get harder in the most drastic change for any NFL team this season.

CINCINNATI — The Bengals enter the second half of their schedule facing the toughest gauntlet in the league. 

According to FiveThirtyEight, Cincinnati holds the largest discrepancy between first and second-half schedule strength.

"The first, and likely most difficult, task for the Bengals is winning during their tough slate of upcoming games," Andres Waters wrote. "According to the average pregame Elo ratings of their opponents, the Bengals’ schedule through Week 10 ranked fourth-easiest in the NFL. Now, in the second half, the team will have to go through the hardest remaining schedule in the league. That’s easily the largest swing, in terms of strength of schedule differential between halves of a season, for any team this season. (Entering the year, Cincinnati’s schedule ranked 10th-hardest overall.)"

Cincinnati had to weather a similar, albeit slightly easier, stretch last season when they ended up dispatching three of the four eventual playoff teams on the back half of their schedule.

Still, despite having the fifth-best point differential in the league (+4.8), Cincinnati is Football Outsiders' least consistent team. They lead all 32 franchises in team variance.

It's Déjà vu in front of the Ohio River. The Bengals likely need to go at least 10-7 like last campaign to play for a Super Bowl shot. Since the 2020 playoff expansion, seventh seeds are averaging 9.4 wins.

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