Today's events on the big NFL schedule are huge. I mean, epic. NFL Network works the post-dinner hour to announce its regular season schedule. On the front page of ESPN.com, they call it the "NFL schedule release special". Don't get original or anything. So we'll know the opponents, right? No, no, we know that already. We'll know strength of schedule, right? No, no, those figures were known once we learned the opponents -- as if strength of schedule means a damn in April. But this is the NFL, the league that tends to hype their events into an overblown hysteria. What other sport actually has their own network schedule an evening spot to release dates and times of the regular season. That's it, dates and times. Opponents? We know that already. Dates and times. Irony of me making a post on the whole damned thing notwithstanding.
So, for you, my people, here are the Bengals games, opponents, complete with dates and times. As a special gift to you, I'm even including the day of the dates and times.
| Week | Date | Day | Opponent | Time | TV |
| 1 | 9.13 | Sunday | Denver Broncos | 1:00 | CBS |
| 2 | 9.20 | Sunday | @ Green Bay Packers | 1:00 | Fox |
| 3 | 9.27 | Sunday | Pittsburgh Steelers | 1:00 | CBS |
| 4 | 10.4 | Sunday | @ Cleveland Browns | 1:00 | CBS |
| 5 | 10.11 | Sunday | @ Baltimore Ravens | 1:00 | CBS |
| 6 | 10.18 | Sunday | Houston Texans | 1:00 | CBS |
| 7 | 10.25 | Sunday | Chicago Bears | 1:00 | CBS |
| 8 | Bye | ||||
| 9 | 11.8 | Sunday | Baltimore Ravens | 1:00 | CBS |
| 10 | 11.15 | Sunday | @ Pittsburgh Steelers | 1:00 | CBS |
| 11 | 11.22 | Sunday | @ Oakland Raiders | 4:15 | CBS |
| 12 | 11.29 | Sunday | Cleveland Browns | 1:00 | CBS |
| 13 | 12.6 | Sunday | Detroit Lions | 1:00 | Fox |
| 14 | 12.13 | Sunday | @ Minnesota Vikings | 1:00 | CBS |
| 15 | 12.20 | Sunday | @ San Diego Chargers | 4:05 | CBS |
| 16 | 12.27 | Sunday | Kansas City Chiefs | 1:00 | CBS |
| 17 | 1.3.10 | Sunday | @ New York Jets | 1:00 | CBS |
Anything you notice immediately? Well, no Primetime games. But you kind of saw that coming. And the only starts that are not at 1:00pm, are games on the West Coast (which is 1pm on the West Coast). Cincinnati plays back-to-back division games on the road in week four and five. Our last division game is against Cleveland in week 12. We nine play all six division games in a nine-game stretch -- week three to week 12.