Home Field Advantage

[cincy90]

At first, I didn't think I should introduce such a topic because it's so far off into the future. But then I remembered people actually discussing what individual players the Bengals will draft next year.

So...how many wins is it gonna take for the Bengals to get homefield advantage throughout the playoffs?

[Stripes]

It will take 14 wins, because I expect the Colts to get at least 13.

[kingwilly]

It will take 11 or 12 but we need to beat Indy, JAX, and at a minimum split with Pit & Bal. KC is the last piece of the puzzle.

I think it will come down to the KC game at Arrowhead. We win, we clinch home field with 11 or 12 wins.

The only teams in the AFC that look unstoppable are us and Indy. NE and Pit look thoroughly beatable. KC took it on the chin in Denver and SD is already in a hole. This season has quite a bit of parity for sure.

AFC East and West will be won with 10-6 (NE and Denver)

AFC South will be won with 12-4 (Indy)

AFC North will be won with 12-4 (Cincy of course) with home field adv.

Denver and Pit are Wildcards.

Wildcard will be KC having to travel to Denver, and losing

Denver then comes to us. We win.

Other Wildcard is Pit at NE. NE wins.

NE goes to Indy, Indy get of the schnide and wins.

Indy visits us, and gets THUMPED. Cincy to Detroit Rock City for SB XL vs.......Atlanta. Cincy wins 31-28 on late TD to CJ.

[buck3y3d]

I don't mind predicting the future, but it will be hard for cincy to win 14 games. I see us more realistically around 11 (with the possibility of 13 if we can beat the Jags and Pit (at home). When examining the schedule i see 6 games that are possible losses.

Pitt (2), Indy, Baltimore (away), Colts, and KC

I figure the Bengals will win some of these games, but enough to catch the Colts, i'm not so sure.

I think the Bengals need 13 wins, i don't know if they can get there.

[kingwilly]

It always goes we lose one we should win (maybe GB or Lions?) and we'll win one we shouldn't (KC@home).

That and the split with Pit and Bal gives me a 13-3 or 12-4, pending possible losses such as: Lions, Pit, Bal and maybe one to KC or Indy.

I don't want to sit and debate about a possible loss here or there, pure speculation. The homer in me says we can win out! The realist tells me we will proably drop 3-5 and win the division.

[Stripes]

The homer in me says we can win out! The realist tells me we will proably drop 3-5 and win the division.

There's something ironic about this statement...

I think we can make it to 13-3, but the realist in me says 11-5 or 10-6

[NYBengalfan]

It's too early to worry about homefield advantage, lets just keep on winning.

We'll talk about that late nov.-early dec.

lets "DO OUR JOB"

[DontPushMe]

I wouldnt worry much about going to Indy. It will be late in the year, freezing out, possibly snowing, in a dome, Carson, Chad, TJ, and Perry (No i didnt leave RJ out because I dont like him, I left him out because he would be about the same out of a dome in the winter) could get going much better. Obviously playing at home would be better, but if we have to go somewhere in the post season, I'd rather go to Indy over Pitt or NE.

[NYBengalfan]

guys, guys, im psyched too but lets not get ahead of ourselves, we didnt even make the playoffs yet. Do I want to bust a load b/c of the thought of how well we age gonna do?...HELL YEAH, but I always try to remind myself we gotta take it one game at a time.

But to answer your question I would rather play in Indy than NE or PIT. BUT I DO think that we'll get home field advantage and the road to the AFC title will come through the JUNGLE

[derekshank]

I think I am correct in assuming that the common belief is that our greatest competition for homefield is New England, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis.

Well, New England has 1 loss already, and have a pretty tough schedule (San Diego, @Atlanta, @Denver, Indy, @KC, TB) If they don't lose one in the next 3 weeks though (San Diego, @Atlanta, @Denver) then the conversation is over. They will get home field. But I don't think they will get it with all their injuries and coaching losses. Even Brady is human.

Indy has a lot of trap games this season. I think going to Tennessee will be tough for them this week. Their offense hasn't gotten it going yet, and this will be by far the best offense they have faced... and it is in the division, so anything can happen. They also have to go to New England, Cincinnati and Jacksonville (divisional game), and Pittsburgh and San Diego play at Indy. This is a difficult schedule to win 13 games with.

Pittsburgh plays @San Diego and @Indy, already lost to NE, and plays @Minnesota late in the year, hopefully after that defense has got it together.

We play @Jacksonville, Indy, and @KC. Assuming we split with Pittsburgh, we have the most favorable schedule of any of these teams, With Pittsburgh coming in with a close 2nd. Our advantage right now is that we don't have a loss yet, and have a much easier schedule than Indy.

We just need to keep winning, and home field will work itself out. But based on schedule and current record, I'd say we have the best shot at it.