GH: After the 2021 Super Bowl run, we’ve talked about how the Bengals became kind of one of the darlings of the league. Then they were in so many close games this last year. I would imagine they’re still viewed as a good get for a game. It seems every time you put them on, it’s decided at the end.
MN: Always, always, And look, the truth is they were actually a little unlucky last year, right? You think about the start of the season and the record that they got off to with the close losses. But down the stretch, they were maybe the most interesting story. Can the Bengals pull it together and save this thing? Finished, what (five wins) in a row?
They were arguably one of our best stories down the stretch. Usually, performance at the end of the last season carries over into the start of the next season. So I assume we’re going to be thinking about the Bengals going into 2025 as the Bengals from the end of 2024, not the beginning of 2024.
GH: They got flexed out of a Week 16 Thursday night at home against Cleveland.
MN: It was interesting. Part of that was their record, but also their opponent’s record, right? That Cleveland-Cincinnati game — four weeks out when we had to make a decision — had the potential to fall apart. No playoff implications for either team. We had to make that call last year a month in. (This year, ownership shortened that runway to three weeks instead of four.)
The closer we can get, the better decisions we can make. Obviously, there’s an impact on the fans and the ticket holders and the travel and all that. The closer we get, maybe we don’t end up flexing. I mean, Cleveland-Cincy is the perfect example.
Four weeks out it was like, ‘We’ve got to flex this Chargers-Broncos game. It’s sitting there, likely to be under distributed on Fox. Let’s make the change.’ If we had waited until maybe only a week or two out, which may not be practical with a Thursday game, but the longer…
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