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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Chris Roling

Bengals get some unexpected good news in the playoff race

When the Cincinnati Bengals dropped the game to the Pittsburgh Steelers over the weekend, it had the feel of all hope being lost.

Not only did the Bengals look lost on the field to the point Mike Hilton was brutally honest about their issues, but it knocked them far down the playoff board.

But the rest of the league’s results from Week 16 have seemingly kept the Bengals alive.

At the New York Times‘ playoff machine, the Bengals have a better than 90 percent chance to still make the postseason if they can beat the Chiefs and Browns to close the season.

Easier said than done, of course. But the Chiefs, Colts, Texans, Jaguars and Broncos all dropping games in Week 16 had a pretty profound impact on the Cincinnati outlook.

Granted, the Bengals have to fix the litany of issues that sunk them in Pittsburgh with zero wiggle room for mistakes. But given how wild the AFC has been, they should get a little help from other results over the next two weeks, so getting right against the Chiefs in Kansas City would be a huge deal.

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