Who will bengals play next week

Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals. (The Tennessean)

The Cincinnati Bengals are going to the AFC Championship Game after beating the Tennessee Titans.

For the first time since Boomer Esiason won NFL MVP, the Cincinnati Bengals are going to the AFC Championship Game.

After winning their first playoff game since the 1990 campaign last week over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Bengals kept the good vibes going by beating the top-seeded Tennessee Titans on the road in Nashville on the final play of the game. Kicker Evan McPherson put the ball through the uprights to give the Bengals their first road playoff victory in franchise history. So who is up next?

The No. 4-seeded Bengals will travel to the winner of the No. 3 Buffalo Bills vs. No. 2 Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday night to play in the 2021 AFC Championship Game next weekend.

AFC playoff picture: Who are the Cincinnati Bengals playing in the championship?

Since Cincinnati is the lower seed when compared to Buffalo or Kansas City, the Bengals will have to travel on the road once again next week. The AFC Championship Game will be played in either Orchard Park or in Kansas City. Now that the Bengals have won their first road playoff game in franchise history, they are truly playing with house money heading into the conference title bout.

Though they will be sizable underdogs vs. either the Bills or Chiefs, keep in mind this very important fact. The only two other times the Bengals have played in the AFC Championship Game, they have won it and gone on to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, their league MVP quarterbacks were not good enough to beat the San Francisco 49ers for the ultimate prize on either occasion.

If Joe Burrow wants to eclipse Esiason or Ken Anderson in Bengals lore, he has to win the big one.

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Sunday update: The Chiefs crushed the Steelers 42-21. With the Chiefs win, the Bengals will travel to face the Titans in the Divisional Round. The Chiefs will host the Bills. Bengals-Titans will kick off Saturday, January 22nd at 4:30 p.m. ET and air on CBS.

Saturday night update: The Bills soundly defeated the Patriots Saturday night. We are still waiting to see who the Bengals face next weekend, but the Bills win gives us a better idea, as a Chiefs win over the Steelers means they will travel to face the No. 1 seed Titans. If the Steelers can upset the Chiefs, Cincinnati would instead go to Buffalo to play the Bills.

The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday to open the 2022 NFL Playoffs, holding off a late Raiders comeback to advance. The Raiders had shots at the end zone but came up short in the final minute. It wasn’t a pretty game, loaded with penalties and a record of eight combined field goals between the two teams, but the Bengals did just enough to advance.

The Bengals will not find out their opponent for the Divisional Round until Sunday evening. The NFL re-seeds teams in the second round with the No. 1 seed in each conference facing the worst remaining team and the two teams in between facing off. The No. 3 Bills host the No. 6 Patriots on Saturday night and the No. 2 Chiefs host the No. 7 Steelers on Sunday night.

If the Chiefs beat the Steelers, the Bengals Divisional round opponent would be one of two options: 1) if the Bills beat the Patriots, Cincinnati would travel to face the No. 1 Titans, and 2) if the Patriots beat the Bills, Cincinnati would travel to face the Chiefs. If the Steelers upset the Chiefs, the Bengals would face the winner of Bills-Patriots.

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