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The Bengals Will Face The Chiefs At Arrowhead On New Year's Eve, Which Is Way Better Than Blowing That Matchup On Opening Night To Kickoff The Season

The wait for a Joe Burrow contract extension continues, but the NFL schedule is dropping on Thursday, so at least there's that to look forward to. Speculation swirled for a while that an AFC Championship Game rematch between the Bengals and Chiefs would kick off the 2023 season, but instead, the schedule makers had the wherewithal to push that high-stakes matchup to Week 17.

Don't get me wrong. When Cincinnati players were eager for the opportunity to exact vengeance on KC right out of the gates, I was getting hyped.

However, this is clearly the way to go. Mark your calendars. New Year's Eve. Sunday, December 31, 2023.

You'd assume that both the Chiefs and Bengals will be in position to battle for top playoff seeding by this point. I'm not naïve to the fact that the AFC North will be tougher than usual, though. Baltimore somehow pulled Lamar Jackson's contract extension out of their collective asses when it looked like he was for sure going to be traded. The Steelers had an excellent draft and have Kenny Pickett poised to make a Year 2 jump. Then, scumbaggy as the Browns are, if Deshaun Watson is anywhere close to the quarterback Cleveland paid $250 million guaranteed to, you can't sleep on them.

...Still think Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati offense are going to ball out with the best offensive line he's ever been behind in the NFL by far and all those weapons still in place. Lou Anarumo will continue to cook on defense with a deep secondary and an actually-viable situational pass-rusher in first-round pick Myles Murphy. 

Feeling pretty damn good about the Bengals' chances to three-peat atop the AFC North. That can be true, AND, I'd be a negligent nincompoop not to acknowledge that Lamar getting hurt down the stretch of the past two seasons was helpful to the cause.

Then of course, as long as the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid, they'll contend for Super Bowls. Don't really care how "tough" the AFC West is. Everyone thought that division would be the best in football last year. Not so much. Kansas City flexed on 'em.

But if the Chiefs have one kryptonite...

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Ultimately, they gotta play us.

Thought about just ending the blog there but inevitably I'll get folks coming at me with the "WINS ARE NOT A QB STAT" argument. I'm not here to refute that point. I'm simply emphasizing that the Bengals have had the upper hand against the Chiefs in the Mahomes vs. Burrow era. It took three starting o-linemen to go down in the last meeting for Joey B to be sabotaged enough to where Kansas City could win. The 0-2 start to the year for Cincinnati also eliminated any chance of having home field in that duel for the AFC crown.

Thankfully, Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval is a little more chill about the next meeting with the Chiefs this time around:

This has the makings of a really special year in the NFL. The AFC in particular is as stacked as you could possibly imagine. We'll see if the Bengals and Chiefs are, for the third postseason in a row, the final two teams standing at the end. This New Year's Eve showdown could very well go a long way in determining that.

Check out Clem's blog on the international slate, and keep an eye out Thursday for the full NFL schedule drop.

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok

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