The Bengals’ 0-2 Start Could Spell Trouble for Their Super Bowl Hopes, Futures

It may be time to start worrying about the Cincinnati Bengals. The 2021 AFC Champions fell to 0-2 after a 27-24 home loss to their AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens. Their loss come on the heels of a blowout against another division rival, the Cleveland Browns, to open the season.

The Bengals opened with the second-shortest odds to win the Super Bowl at BetMGM (+850) behind the Kansas City Chiefs and were +1100 entering their home debut against the Ravens. After the loss, that number has slipped to +1400 at the time of this writing.

Bengals Super Bowl Odds Movement

The Bengals also entered the season tied with the Eagles and Chiefs for the highest win total in the NFL at 11.5. Burrow was the co-favorite to win MVP (+650) when odds opened earlier this year and remained there despite suffering a calf strain in July that forced him to miss several week during the preseason. After two weeks, he's down to +1200 in the MVP market.

While the aspirations and expectations for the Bengals were high entering the season, history suggest they would be a success by simply making the playoffs. Of the 270 teams that started 0-2 in the regular season since 1990, only 31 of them (roughly 11%) reached the playoffs that same season. Of course, the Bengals were one of those teams after starting last season 0-2 and finishing the season 12-4 to get back to the AFC Championship game.

The Bengals will have eight days off before they play again on Monday Night Football at home against the Los Angeles Rams. The follow that up with three road games in October against the TennesseeTitans (Oct. 1) ArizonaCardinals (Oct. 8) and San Francisco 49ers (Oct. 29).