It isn’t hard to say Bengals and the Browns have had their fair share of adversity during the past 20 years. While they both were dominant in the 80’s, neither team has been able to accomplish anything by way of playoff wins since 1994 when the Bill Belichick Browns beat the Belichick-less Patriots in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Since then the two Ohio franchises have combined for 8 playoff appearances, zero wins in those appearances, and a total of only 9 winning seasons. They make up two of the four historic franchises stuck without playoff wins including Detroit and Buffalo. All 7 winning seasons of the Bengals have resulted in playoff berths and Cleveland’s 2 winning seasons in 2002 and the 2010. The Browns missed the playoffs in 2010 because of losing a head-to-head tie-breaker against the AFC champion Steelers.
The Browns definitely have had the worse fate but neither track record has meant anything. So what is the cause of each team being locked in their own pigskin purgatory, the Browns stuck in the bottom 5 and Bengals unable to win a playoff game? The problem is actually the same in both cases and yet slightly different.
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