It’s science.
Did you think the Cincinnati Bengals’ dominant win over the Buffalo Bills on the road, in the snow was impressive? Well, so does FiveThirtyEight. In fact, their Elo system has it as the greatest performance by the team in franchise history. Elo, by the way, measures a team’s performance and measures it against the expectations heading into the game.
The Bengals jumped an astonishing 40 points in one week, going from 1,690 after their win over the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round to 1,730 after upsetting the team that was favored to win the Super Bowl for much of the year.
538 says this is the best Bengals team of all time (by their Elo rating, which measures their relative strength compared to their peers). They currently have the highest rating of any team in the NFL, narrowly ahead of their opponent this weekend. pic.twitter.com/HCuR1AeIUc
— Jake Liscow (@JakeLiscow) January 23, 2023
The next biggest spike seems to be 35 points, which occurred between Week 4 (1,529) and Week 5 (1,564) of the 1988 Super Bowl season. In that Week 5 game, the Bengals dominated the Los Angeles Raiders, winning 45-21.
More important than just one game, though, is the overall trajectory of the team. The 1,730 score puts the Bengals at the highest point in franchise history. This is, no doubt, largely due to a 10-game win streak; since dropping to 1,555 in Week 8 against the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati has jumped by 175 points. You can view the individual ratings here.
Okay, but there are still two games to play. Can the Bengals continue to trend upward and finish with a 12-game win streak? Let’s start by previewing Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs:
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