We discussed this last week after the first round of the NFL playoffs, and we will bring it up again. Why? Because somehow the Cincinnati Bengals went into Buffalo last weekend and beat the Bills, 27-10. Sabermetrically, the Bills would have been favored to beat the Bengals by 4 points on a neutral field. In upstate New York? That swells to a full touchdown, at least. Alas, the team with the AFC’s best defense gave up 27 points to quarterback Joe Burrow and his friends, and here’s the part that really stinks.

Cincinnati’s offense was missing three starting offensive linemen; yet, the Bengals were called for a mere two penalties totaling 9 yards in this game. We all know holding happens on every play in this sport, and it’s just a matter of whether the officials decide to call it or not. So, we ask this basic question: How could an offensive line missing three starters take on the best defense in the conference and never get called for holding? It’s a choice, of course, and we’ve seen Cincinnati get these favorable “choices” a lot.

(By the way, Buffalo was favored by just 5.5 points, which shows you that there are a lot of bettors catching on to the Joe Burrow Agenda … it’s not just us!)

Advanced math says the Bengals offense should have scored 1.7 more points than the average team (17.9) against the Bills. The Cincinnati offense almost got it all in the first quarter as it scored 14 points on its first two drives. Perhaps the Buffalo defense got off to a slow start; there’s always a plausible rationale for this kind of upset. However, the pattern has been clear for awhile, so it’s easy to scrutinize the officiating and the NFL’s obvious financial motives instead.

The Bengals now go on the road to play in Kansas City, and Chiefs star QB Patrick Mahomes conveniently has a bum ankle. That may end up saving the NFL a great deal of grief, as now the K.C. fans have a built-in excuse for a potential loss—and they won’t focus as much on the shite officiating that has enabled Cincinnati in the last two seasons. We know ESPN and the College Football Playoff rigged a lot for Burrow during the 2019 season, but this favoritism by the NFL just reeks of something rotten.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you, because we have been for a long time now. This is Eli Manning bullshit all over again.