The fifth of five scheduled primetime games on the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2024 schedule comes in NFL Week 16 against the AFC North rival Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium, on Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football.
The Browns-Bengals kickoff is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Eastern on December 19.
The Thursday Night Football game comes two weeks (10 calendar days) after a Monday Night Football game against the Cowboys in Dallas. The “Battle of Ohio” game is six weeks after the Bengals visit the Baltimore Ravens on a Thursday night, and 10 weeks after the Bengals face the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday Night Football. Cincinnati is scheduled to host an MNF game in Week 3 against the Washington Commanders.
It would be the first time in Bengals’ history that the team plays twice in one season on Thursday Night Football, with both games being divisional showdowns.
What to know about the Bengals’ Thursday night game in December:
Burrow injured his wrist in last year’s loss in Baltimore on a Thursday night.
But he helped the Bengals to a 27-15 win against the Miami Dolphins on Thursday Night Football in September 2022, and a 24-21 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on a Thursday one year earlier.
In those two home Thursday night wins, Burrow had a combined 635 passing yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Bengals and Browns last met on Thursday Night Football in 2020, with Cleveland winning 35-30. Burrow was 37-of-61 for 316 passing yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in a losing effort. It was Burrow’s second NFL game.
The Bengals also will have played four days earlier, on a Sunday afternoon against the Titans in Nashville.
The Bengals-Browns game is one of four scheduled primetime games for Cleveland, which isn’t scheduled to play its first primetime game until Week 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football.
The Browns are scheduled to play four of their six games in primetime between Weeks 12 and 17.
The Browns finished the 2023 NFL season in second place in the AFC North, with an 11-6 record. Cleveland lost to Houston, 45-14, in the wild card round of the playoffs.
The Browns are 6-2 against the Bengals since 2020. But Burrow didn’t play in two of those games.
The Bengals are 1-5 in the six games against the Browns in which Burrow has played.
The Browns host the Bengals in Week 7, on a Sunday afternoon in October.
LOVE SPORTS? [ Subscribe now for unlimited access to Cincinnati.com ]