(05-09-2017, 06:18 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: These pre-season strength of schedule things are basically just a joke though.

I agree. Every team is building to win. Much talent from last year will develop. Strength of schedule is only based on past year and possibilities. We've got talent, but not 13-3 talent yet and as other posters have said, it's all about the OL.

(05-09-2017, 04:17 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Yes, I get that... I just find it funny. You would think the Super Bowl Champions would get the hardest schedule to make it harder to repeat....

If we got to play the Jets Bills and Dolphins twice a year, every year... We'd never miss the playoffs either. 

You guys deserve it. Every year the NFL will give you the hardest schedule which isn't right.

(05-10-2017, 12:52 AM)Pat5775 Wrote: If we got to play the Jets Bills and Dolphins twice a year, every year... We'd never miss the playoffs either. 

This ^^^

(05-10-2017, 12:05 PM)sandwedge Wrote: This ^^^

Or our division the NFC North.

(05-09-2017, 06:07 PM)Joelist Wrote: By and large the scheduling formula works pretty well. It's far better than what used to happen - remember the multiple seasons where we were Top 5 hardest schedule while the Stealers would get schedules where the opponent winning percentage was under .400?

Or when we had a six team division which meant we had more divisional games than out of division?

Teams within a division only have 2 games determined by last years prior record.

Teams within a division play the same 12 games.

Then the other 2 games are the other division opponent. (For instance, we'd play the Steelers twice and they'd play us twice.)

The Steelers winning percentage being lower HAD to be because either we finished better than them...or we were really bad...and playing us twice a year skewed their SoS.

Tough to tell difficulty ahead of time. Too many teams rise and fall year to year. Honestly I have no idea how the Bengals will fare this regular season. If the line improves, I could easily see 10-6 or better. They could also continue to regress. Especially if the line is as bad as it looks on paper.