Settling The Debate: Bengals Need To Win This Game More Than The Ravens

Our buddies at Baltimore Beatdown made the argument that the Ravens need a win this weekend more than the Cincinnati Bengals. Besides the fact that the Bengals won't make the playoffs unless they win in the first place, Bruce Raffel argues that since the Ravens aren't a particularly good road team, they'll need the second seed which brings homefield advantage against everyone save the New England Patriots (presuming they beat the Buffalo Bills).

Therefore, the Ravens actually need this game more than the Bengals do for this and a few other meaningful reasons. Look at it this way. If the Bengals win this game, they go on the road to play what appears to be the Houston Texans and while the Texans haven't been playing well as of late, they should be able to beat the Bengals and if not, then the New England Patriots would be awaiting Cincinnati, which would surely signal the end of their season.

First of all is there anyone here that doesn't think that the Bengals can't beat the Houston Texans? It took two 13-play drives at the end of the game for the Texans to overcome a nine-point fourth quarter deficit. We're fairly certain that the Bengals won't allow that to happen next time around. Lesson learned. Changes implemented.

But that game doesn't even matter. It's a fantasy based that's yet to come because the Bengals have to beat the Ravens this weekend before any thoughts about the postseason can be entertained.

Be it as it may that a win gives the Ravens more home games during the postseason if they beat the Bengals this weekend, if Cincinnati doesn't win then they're going home. So the Bengals slightly need this win more than the Ravens.