Who wins Round 2 of Bengals vs. Ravens?

The date was December 10, 1989, and the Cincinnati Bengals were hosting the Seattle Seahawks in a regular-season contest. At the height of the game, Bengals fans began throwing snowballs and other objects onto the field.

The Seahawks were deep in their own territory and refused to continue play until the field could be cleared. In response, Cincinnati head coach Sam Wyche got on the public address system and, in an effort to help get the fans under control, said, “You don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!”

Well, the Browns didn’t live in Cleveland for much longer after that. On November 6, 1995, Cleveland owner Art Modell announced his intention to move the Browns to Baltimore, where they would become the Baltimore Ravens. In the final game played at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, the Browns beat the Bengals, 26-10.

At the time, Cleveland owned a 27-24 advantage over the Bengals, primarily as a result of winning eight of the final 10 games played between the two teams.

Since the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, the two teams have played each other exactly 51 times. Baltimore, mostly on the strength of victories in seven of 10 games from November of 2016 through January of 2021, owns a 27-24 edge.

And there have been some pretty exciting games in the series.

In the first game between the two teams on November 3, 1996, Cincinnati spotted the Ravens a 21-3 halftime advantage before roaring back for a 24-21 win.

On October 19, 2003, in the first game of the Marvin Lewis Era in Cincinnati, the Bengals toppled Baltimore by a score of 34-26.

On December 5, 2004, Cincinnati came back from a 20-3 fourth-quarter deficit to win, 27-26. Then, on September 10, 2007, in a game which is probably best remembered for Chad Johnson donning a Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket with the words “Future H.O.F. 20??” of the back, The Bengals won, 27-20.

On November 10, 2013, Cincinnati overcame a 17-0 deficit to send the game into overtime on the strength of a 49-yard Hail Mary pass from Andy Dalton to A.J. Green, only to lose, 20-17.

Baltimore’s recent dominance was interrupted on December 31, 2017 when in the final game of the regular season, Andy Dalton hit Tyler Boyd with a 49-yard scoring strike on 4th and 12 and less than a minute to play. The loss eliminated the Ravens from playoff contention and ended the Buffalo Bills’ 17-year playoff drought.

The Bengals host Baltimore Sunday with all sorts of playoff implications on the line. Cincinnati currently stands tied with the Ravens for the AFC North Division lead, but the Bengals own the tiebreaker on the strength of their 41-17 victory earlier in the year.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh are both still in the hunt for both a playoff spot and a division title, with Cincinnati set to travel to Cleveland for the season finale. It all starts for the Bengals this weekend.

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