The complete 2026 slate with rest edges and schedule context, the 2025 ledger, and the franchise record since 1999 — every number computed from the bundled nflverse game log.
By C. B. Zakarian · Updated July 29, 2026
The Cincinnati Bengals enter 2026 off a 6–11 season. Their 2026 opponents went a combined 130–159 in 2025 (a .450 strength of schedule, 30 of 32 — the naive prior-year method, whose real forecast error we measured here). The calendar hands them a net rest differential of -4 days (23 of 32), with week 7 (+7), week 10 (-7), week 11 (-3), week 14 (-3), week 18 (+3); the bye falls in week 6, they play 1 Thursday game, and 2 of their final four games are divisional. Rest-edge context lives in the schedule-quirks explainer.
Results fill in automatically as the bundled nflverse game log updates; until a game is played its result column shows a dash.
| Wk | Date | Opponent | Rest edge | Notes | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 13 | vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers | — | — | — |
| 2 | Sep 20 | at Houston Texans | — | — | — |
| 3 | Sep 27 | at Pittsburgh Steelers | — | DIV | — |
| 4 | Oct 4 | vs Jacksonville Jaguars | — | — | — |
| 5 | Oct 11 | at Miami Dolphins | — | — | — |
| 7 | Oct 25 | at Baltimore Ravens | +7 | DIV | — |
| 8 | Nov 1 | vs Tennessee Titans | — | — | — |
| 9 | Nov 8 | at Atlanta Falcons | — | — | — |
| 10 | Nov 15 | vs Pittsburgh Steelers | -7 | DIV | — |
| 11 | Nov 23 | at Washington Commanders | -3 | Mon | — |
| 12 | Nov 29 | vs New Orleans Saints | -1 | — | — |
| 13 | Dec 6 | at Cleveland Browns | — | DIV | — |
| 14 | Dec 13 | vs Kansas City Chiefs | -3 | — | — |
| 15 | Dec 20 | at Carolina Panthers | — | — | — |
| 16 | Dec 27 | at Indianapolis Colts | — | — | — |
| 17 | Dec 31 | vs Baltimore Ravens | — | DIV Thu | — |
| 18 | Jan 10 | vs Cleveland Browns | +3 | DIV | — |
Final record 6–11, 414 points scored against 492 allowed (-78). Home 3–6, road 3–5. One-score games (decided by 8 or fewer): 3–5 — the split most likely to regress either way, per the Pythagorean explainer.
Across the 27 seasons in our game log the franchise is 199–233–4 (.461). Best season in the window: 2015 (12–4); leanest: 2002 (2–14). Franchise moves are joined under the current code (CIN), so older seasons include predecessor cities where applicable.
Sources: nflverse public game log bundled at data/games.csv (schedule, rest, and results; retrieved July 2026 — in-season updates refresh this page's results column). No projections, no invented numbers: this page reports the schedule and the record, and links the analysis.