The first of four primetime games for the Cincinnati Bengals this season is going down this week. They'll look to notch their first win of the season against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football.

While this will be a rematch of Super Bowl 56, it'll also be the first Monday night home game the Bengals will play in nearly three years. It's not too often this setting gets to be the last game of the week.

Here's a brief history of the Bengals playing on Monday night.

Bengals All-Time Record on Monday Night Football

The Bengals are 12-16 all-time on Monday night going all the way back to their first appearance on November 2, 1970. Cincinnati was on the road that day and lost 21-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

From 1985-89, the Bengals won three consecutive appearances on Monday night before losing in five of their next six through the 1992 season. As expected, the Bengals didn't grace the Monday night stage for a while in the 90s and finally returned on October 25, 2004 when they defeated the Denver Broncos 23-10 at home.

Bengals Recent History on Monday Night Football

Since the turn of the century, the Bengals are 5-10 on Monday night. Marvin Lewis sported a 4-8 record during his 16-year run as head coach, and Zac Taylor is currently 1-2 now in his fourth year. 

Many Bengals fans like to block out the most recent MNF appearance, a 32-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Halloween last year, and instead think back to the 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 21, 2020. The Bengals conducted an inspiring performance against a 11-2 Steelers team at the time, headlined by Vonn Bell's hit-stick on JuJu Smith-Schuster. 

Vonn Bell rocked JuJu to force a fumble ?

(via @Bengals)pic.twitter.com/vRQm9gz90n

— ESPN (@espn) December 22, 2020

That game became one of four-consecutive Monday night games the Bengals played against AFC North opponents, with three of them being against the Steelers. The last time the Bengals played a non-AFC North team on Monday night was seven years ago when the Bengals fell the New York Giants, 21-20, on November 14, 2016.

It's been nearly a decade since the Bengals last beat an out-of-division team on MNF as they've lost their last three opportunities. The last win was on December 22, 2014 in a rowdy 37-28 victory over the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos. Late December seems to be the sweet spot for unexpected Bengals victories on Monday night. 

They'll have to settle for late September this time around as the Rams come to town.

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Featured image via © Kareem Elgazzar via Imagn Content Services, LLC