Cincinnati Bengals Look to Continue NFL's Monday Night Road Team Winning Streak

CINCINNATI – In seemingly every interview with a Cincinnati Bengals player or coach this week, there was at least one question about playing on Monday night.

And each time the response had something to do with the atmosphere and energy that comes with playing in that type of stand-alone game (though not this week with the Jets and Dolphins also playing), where not only a national audience will be watching, but most of their coach and player peers will be tuning in as well.

One weird thing about Monday night recently, that great atmosphere with the extra energy in the crowd hasn’t been much of an advantage for the home team.

Road teams are 4-0 on Monday night this year and have won five in a row dating back to 2017.

The Vikings were favored by 1.5 at Chicago in Week 1 and won 27-24.

In Week 2, there were two games.

The Buccaneers were 2.5-point underdogs at Houston and won 20-19. And the Chargers were 3-point favorites at Las Vegas and won by that exact amount, 23-20.

And last week the Lions were 4-point underdogs at Baltimore and, as many Bengals fans are gleefully aware, pulled off an impressive 38-30 upset.

The Lions also won the final Monday night game of 2024 as a road team, going into Minnesota as 2.5-point favorites and coming away with a 31-9 blowout win.

Road teams have won 10 of the last 13 Monday night games.

And since the start of 2023, road teams are 27-19 on MNF.

Can the Bengals keep the Monday night road trend going?

They actually own a streak of their own.

The Bengals won on Monday night in Dallas last year, 20-14. And in 2023, the pulled off a huge upset at 10.5-point underdogs in Jacksonville, prevailing 34-31 in overtime for Jake Browning’s first career win.

Prior to that, the Bengals had been 3-20 in Monday night road games, with their most recent win coming all the way back in 1990 at Cleveland.

Since Monday Night Football began in 1970, the Bengals’ .200 winning percentage as the road team is tied for the worst in the league with the Jaguars, who are 1-4.

The best teams are the Cowboys (28-18, .609), Seahawks (9-6, .600), 49ers (22-16, .579), Ravens (13-10, .565) and Steelers (24-20, .545).

When it comes to home teams on Monday night, the Broncos are among the best with a 25-13-1 record (.654) that ranks seventh and includes an overtime win against the Bengals in 2015.

The Steelers are the gold standard at 31-6 (.838), followed by the Seahawks (22-7, .759), Packers (21-9-1, .700), Chiefs (20-9, .690) and 49ers (31-16, .660).

Here are all 25 Monday night road appearances in Bengals history. How many do you remember?

12/09/2024, Wk. 14, CIN 27 @ DAL 20

12/04/2023, Wk. 13, CIN 34 @ JAC 31

10/31/2022, Wk. 8, CIN 13 @ CLE 32

09/30/2019, Wk. 4, CIN 3 @ PIT 27

11/14/2016, Wk. 10, CIN 20 @ NYG 21

12/28/2015, Wk. 16, CIN 17 @ DEN 20

09/10/2012, Wk. 1, CIN 13 @ BAL 44

12/18/2006, Wk. 15, CIN 16 @ IND 34

10/19/1992, Wk. 7, CIN 0 @ PIT 20

12/09/1991, Wk. 15, CIN 13 @ MIA 37

10/21/1991, Wk. 8, CIN 16 @ BUF 35

10/22/1990, Wk. 7, CIN 34 @ CLE 13

10/01/1990, Wk. 4, CIN 16 @ SEA 31

12/25/1989, Wk. 16, CIN 21 @ MIN 29

11/13/1989, Wk. 10, CIN 24 @ HOU 26

09/30/1985, Wk. 4, CIN 37 @ PIT 24

10/01/1984, Wk. 5, CIN 17 @ PIT 38

11/28/1983, Wk. 13, CIN 14 @ MIA 38

12/20/1982, Wk. 15, CIN 34 @ SD 50

12/11/1978, Wk. 15, CIN 20 @ LA 19

10/09/1978, Wk. 6, CIN 0 @ MIA 21

10/17/1977, Wk. 5, CIN 14 @ PIT 20

12/06/1976, Wk. 13, CIN 20 @ OAK 35

12/02/1974, Wk. 12, CIN 3 @ MIA 24

11/02/1970, Wk. 7, CIN 10 @ PIT 21