Bengals dealt "short straw" on the schedule

After beating the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, the Cincinnati Bengals had to get ready for Pittsburgh, who had played their last game on Sunday afternoon. That means turnover on Tuesday and routine practices on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Despite the excitement that was generated for Monday Night's win, the schedule is a bit disadvantageous.

"We really got dealt a short straw with the Monday night game around Christmas week, because we could have done what you do most of the time, and that’s let the coaches plan on Monday, and bring players in on Tuesday, and then go Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday back down and off," Lewis said on Wednesday. "You can't ask the coaches to plan ahead and get different things in your head with a different team. The position coaches did all their planning they needed to do, but the coordinator can’t look ahead. It’s impossible for them to develop a plan (ahead), and then you go to play call at night."

Whereas Pittsburgh's coaching staff had already started game-planning for the regular season finale, the Bengals didn't start working towards Pittsburgh until late Monday Night (or early Tuesday morning). Of course none of this matters. The Bengals have to play the game and the league isn't going to delay the game another day for the Bengals.

On the other hand, the Bengals played Pittsburgh as recently as Dec. 7... "It’s a short week, but only two games played since we saw them the first time, so it’s not like there has been a lot of new data created," said Lewis. "We've got 16 games of football to look at, but only two since the last time we played."