Ultimately, despite a five-game winning streak to close the season, the Cincinnati Bengals’ furious rally to qualify for the 2025 NFL playoffs fell just short. With the Denver Broncos’ blowout victory against a backup-laden Kansas City Chiefs team, Denver secured seventh place in the AFC, leaving an MVP-caliber Joe Burrow on the outside looking in for the playoffs.
Worse still, the Bengals’ failure was truly unique and rare. Well, at least on a statistical basis.
At 9-8, Cincinnati failed to qualify for the NFL playoffs, officially becoming the first NFL team to miss the second season despite having the league’s leading passer (Burrow) , the league’s leading receiver (Ja’Marr Chase) and the league leader in sacks (Trey Hendrickson).
Frame.
Man, honestly this looks like a cursed round of bad luck all around:
These Bengals will always be at the forefront with a quarterback like Burrow. But they clearly have a lot of work to do to bounce back if they miss the playoffs despite such statistics.
This article was originally published on For The Win: Bengals Missing the Playoffs Made Dubious NFL History With 3 Sobering Stats
