Through the first quarter of the 2024 NFL season, both of Ohio’s teams share the same record. Based on recent history, both should be considered Ohio sports betting longshots to make the playoffs.
The Bengals and Browns each stand at 1-4, and based on our research, it’ll take some serious effort to get into the postseason. BetOhio.com, the home of the best Ohio sportsbook promo codes, used the Champs or Chumps website to see how teams ended up the rest of the NFL season after starting their season with a 1-4 record since the 2019 NFL season. There have been 25 teams in the past five seasons that have started 1-4, according to ChampsorChumps.us data.
Since only one of those teams made the playoffs in the same season, we also looked into how those same teams fared the following season. Using Pro-Football-Reference.com, we found the average performance and postseason results of all the teams that started 1-4 between 2018-2022.
Number of Teams | Avg. Performance | % Making Playoffs |
25 | .376 | 24% |
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Making The Playoffs | 1 | 4% |
Advanced Past Wild Card Round | 0 |
0%
|
Winning Divisional Round | 0 |
0%
|
Winning Conference Championship | 0 |
0%
|
Winning Super Bowl | 0 |
0%
|
While their only wins have come against other 1-4 teams, the Bengals and the Browns have taken otherwise divergent paths to get to the same place. Cleveland has yet to score more than 18 points in any game, and the Browns' average margin of defeat is 8.4 points per game, a two-score difference.
Despite calls mounting for quarterback Deshaun Watson to be benched, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has given the beleaguered signal caller with a $230 million contract a vote of confidence. Watson has passed for just 852 yards, and his 60.6% completion rate ranks among the bottom for starting QBs.
Watson and the Browns travel to Philadelphia on Sunday. The Eagles are 8.5-point favorites according to oddsmakers at bet365 Ohio.
Cincinnati, meanwhile, has one of the NFL's top offenses, averaging 28 points a contest. However, only the Carolina Panthers (the lone team Cincy's beaten) have allowed more than the 145 points the Bengals have surrendered.
The porous defense has cast a pall over quarterback Joe Burrow's amazing comeback after a wrist injury ended his 2023 season in Week 11. Burrow has completed 72.2% of his passes (125 of 173) for 1,370 yards and a 12-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio. His 113.6 passer rating is the highest of any quarterback who has started all five of his team's games this season.
The Bengals travel to the Meadowlands to face the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football. FanDuel Ohio has Cincinnati as a 3.5-point favorite on the road. Even with their 1-4 record, it marks the fourth time coach Zac Taylor's team has been the favorite this season.
The lone playoff team since 2019 to make the playoffs after a 1-4 start is the Washington Football Team in 2020. That club finished with a 7-9 record, which happened to be good enough to win the NFC East that season.
While recent history shows a 1-4 start is almost impossible to overcome, there have been a few teams over the years to pull themselves off the canvas.
In 2018, the Indianapolis Colts flipped a 1-5 start to finish the season 10-6. Three years earlier, the Kansas City Chiefs won 10 straight after a 1-5 start, and in 2004, the Green Bay Packers overcame their 1-4 mark to finish 10-6. All three of those teams made the playoffs.
Four instances in the past 20 years aren't the best of odds, but they can give fans of Who Dey Nation and the Dawg Pound a glimmer of hope. Of Ohio's two teams, it appears oddsmakers at Fanatics believe the Bengals have a far better chance of mounting a comeback. Stick with our Bengals playoff chances pages for the time being as well.
USA Today photo by Scott Galvin.
Author
Steve is an accomplished, award-winning reporter with more than 20 years of experience covering gaming, sports, politics and business. He has written for the Associated Press, Reuters, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Center Square and numerous other publications. Based in Louisville, Ky., Steve has covered the expansion of sports betting in the U.S. and other gaming matters.
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