Bengals Schedule Release: NFL finally gives Cincinnati a break with its most meaningful matchup and it’s on a special day
The Cincinnati Bengals are hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football late in the 2026 NFL regular season. This will be the first regular season home primetime game for the Bengals against their heated rival.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to play the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football once again this year. Only this time, it will be a home game for the Bengals.
Per NFL insider Jordan Schultz, Cincinnati will host the Ravens on TNF in Week 17, which falls on New Year’s Eve. WLWT’s Mike Dardis had the report first.
Another Bengals game has been revealed
This is the second Bengals game that has been officially revealed before Thursday night’s full schedule release. Cincinnati is headed to Madrid, Spain to face the Atlanta Falcons. That game will be played in Week 9 on Sunday, Nov. 8, and it is considered a road contest for the Bengals.
A Thursday night matchup confirms at least one primetime game for Cincy this year following a 6-11 season in 2025. One of those six wins came against Baltimore on Thanksgiving night. It was the third-straight year the Bengals played at the Ravens on a short week under the lights.
Finally, the pendulum is swinging back to Cincinnati, and it should be an incredibly important game. The Bengals and Baltimore are projected to compete for the AFC North title this year. A Week 17 matchup could be the deciding game for the division.
Another wish granted for Joe Burrow
The NFL went four years without putting the Bengals and Baltimore against each other on primetime following a TNF matchup in 2018. That changed in 2022, the season after Cincy went to the Super Bowl, when the Bengals played the Ravens on “Sunday Night Football” early in the season.
The next three seasons featured Cincinnati coming back to Baltimore on TNF. The Bengals lost in 2023 and 2024. Joe Burrow even commented on the oddity after yet another primetime road game against the Ravens was unveiled last year.
“Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight primetime year isn’t ideal,” Burrow said last May. “Maybe we could get one of those in Cincinnati next year, please?”
Wish granted.
It’s a virtual certainty Cincinnati will not be playing the Ravens on TNF twice this year, so it looks like the Bengals will be playing ib Baltimore on a full week of rest for the first time in four years.
The full schedule release will take place Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.