Three Games Bengals Need to Win to Make Playoffs

The Cincinnati Bengals will have a tough road to the playoffs this year as the AFC North is the strongest that it has been in a while. There will be little room for mistakes for these Bengals that are still very young and developing.

Obviously, any AFC North game will be a big one. As Zac Taylor takes on another season with the Bengals, he will need to produce some more results if he wants to keep his head coach position. Let’s look at three of the other non-divisional games that are must-wins for the Bengals to be able to make the playoffs.

Week 4 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

This will be the Bengals' only primetime game of the 2021 season as the Jaguars will be traveling to Paul Brown Stadium for this Thursday Night Football Showdown. The Bengals have had little success in primetime games in the past few years. This will be an obstacle that they will need to overcome if they want to have a successful season.

If there is any team that the Bengals would want to face in primetime, it would be the Jaguars. Jacksonville was one of the few teams that finished worse than the Bengals in 2020. They will have to take advantage of a rookie QB in Trevor Lawrence and first-year head coach Urban Meyer and take care of this game at home.

Week 6 at Detroit Lions

Jared Goff will be a big reason why the Bengals don’t win this game, but that is 1 of few. This is a road game that needs to be a must-win, especially as we near the middle of the season.

Dan Campbell is a new coach for the Lions that has not had a great start with the team. The defense gave up the most points in the NFL last year, which is great for a team like the Bengals, who will be relying on their offensive production next season.

The Lions are in a rebuilding phase and shouldn’t be a huge threat to the Bengals in their first season rebuilding to fix the issues in Detroit.

Week 8 at New York Jets

Another road game that will be a crucial game to win will be against the Jets in New York at the halfway point of the season. The Jets will have both a rookie quarterback in Zach Wilson and rookie head coach, Robert Saleh.

Zach Wilson, drafted from BYU, is a big question mark as most quarterbacks take a couple of seasons to adjust to the NFL speed if they are even able to. The Jets shouldn’t be a great team this year, but if Wilson plays well, this will be a close matchup.

Conclusion

Although these are all first-half games for the Bengals, they will determine the Bengals' season and will most likely be far from playoff contention with how good the AFC North is projected to be. The Bengals must be able to capitalize on these young, inexperienced teams to win some crucial games to put them in playoff contention.