Bengals end 2023 season in wacky way in ESPN simulation

To say a wide range of possible outcomes await the Cincinnati Bengals during the 2023 season would be an understatement.

What’s fun is dialing in on one projection to see what happens, which is exactly what ESPN’s Seth Walder just did while simulating the entire season.

ESPN’s machines usually run 20,000 simulations to come up with predictive percentages. Walder zoomed in on just one (3,818, to be exact) and in that one…the Bengals don’t do so hot.

In fact, the Bengals get swept by the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson, only securing a berth in the wild card, then lose to the Ravens again in the opening round of the postseason:

In the end, the Bengals couldn’t catch them. The Ravens won the division as an 11-win No. 3 seed, while the Bengals finished one game back as the No. 6 seed. The rivals squared off a third time in the playoffs, with the result mirroring the first two. Jackson flourished and the Ravens sacked Joe Burrow five times in a 31-19 defeat to send Cincinnati home.

For what it’s worth, those Ravens go on to lose the Super Bowl against the Eagles.

And hey, this isn’t saying the simulation is an impossibility. Bengals fans know all too well that the Ravens are very good, especially when the quarterback is healthy.

But this would feel like one of those bizarro timelines for the Bengals compared to the expectations as the season gets ready to start.