Thanks to the Denver Broncos’ 38-0 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, they officially punched their ticket to the postseason and set the AFC playoff field.
That win also officially eliminated the Cincinnati Bengals from playoff contention, putting an end to their second half surge that saw them make a push for one of the AFC wild-card spots.
Over the coming days and weeks you are going to hear some sympathy for them missing out based on how dynamic their offense is, how good quarterback Joe Burrow is, how exciting a potential matchup with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen would have been, and how they ended up getting eliminated due to a Chiefs team that sat all of its starters and laid an egg in a meaningless game.
They had become “the team nobody wants to see get in.”
Head coach Zac Taylor added to that narrative himself after Saturday’s 19-17 win in Pittsburgh, saying “they don’t want us in the tournament. I promise you that.”
The Bengals deserve none of that sympathy. They deserve none of the tears that will be shed for them.
They are not worthy of the fear people think they would have inflicted on the top-tier AFC contenders. They did not deserve to be in the AFC playoff field and they have absolutely nobody to blame but themselves for falling short.
Before Sunday’s kickoff CBS analyst J.J. Watt went over the Bengals’ star power and said a team like them should never miss the playoffs, and how much regret they should have over their slow start.
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