The last game the Bengals played at PBS was the win against Cleveland on Oct. 23, which was followed by the game in London against Washington, the bye and Monday night’s contest in New York.
As lengthy as the absence has been, the Bengals have had longer ones in franchise history.
The longest was the strike year of 1982 when they went 78 days between games at Riverfront Stadium. In addition to the cancellation of eight games, the team’s last game before the strike and first one after were on the road.
The most extended absence away from home in an uninterrupted season was 43 days in 1990. The Cincinnati Reds were in the World Series against the Oakland A’s, forcing the Bengals to move a home game against the Browns to Cleveland. The Bengals didn’t lose a home game, they teams just moved the originally scheduled season finale in Cleveland on Dec. 30 to Cincinnati.
And as recently as 2014 the Bengals went more than a month without a home game. After a Thursday night game against Cleveland on Nov. 6, the Bengals played three consecutive road games at New Orleans, Houston and Tampa Bay before returning to PBS to face Pittsburgh on Dec. 7.
“It’s great to have an opportunity to be at home,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. “We’ve got to take advantage of this. It’s been a while since the last one here. We’ll be ready to go.”
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