Cleveland Browns Week 18 finale at Cincinnati Bengals set for 1 p.m. Sunday
CLEVELAND — The Browns will get the traditional 1 p.m. Sunday kickoff time for their regular-season finale next weekend at the Cincinnati Bengals.
The game will be broadcast on CBS. In Northeast Ohio, it's WOIO-TV Channel 19.
The NFL announced the start times for all of the Week 18 games late Sunday evening. Dates and times were determined in order to maximize exposure for the games with divisional title and/or playoff implications.
The second "Battle of Ohio" matchup of the season lost both of those on the next-to-last Sunday of the regular season. The Browns (11-5) had already clinched a playoff berth with Thursday's win over the New York Jets, while the Bengals (8-8) were eliminated by their 25-17 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs, coupled with other results.
During the early afternoon slate of games, the Browns lost their AFC North hopes when the Baltimore Ravens routed the Miami Dolphins to clinch the division. However, they did clinch the No. 5 seed as the top wild-card team in the AFC, meaning a road game to open the playoffs at the AFC South winner, either the Jacksonville Jaguars (9-7), Indianapolis Colts (9-7) or Houston Texans (9-7).
The Bengals' playoff hopes came crashing down due to a combination of events in the late-afternoon slate of games. Wins by the Texans earlier in the day over the Tennessee Titans and, more directly, by the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Seattle Seahawks left Cincinnati on the wrong side of potential tiebreakers and, thus, it was eliminated.
The Browns opened the season with a 24-3 win over the Bengals in Cleveland. They held Cincinnati to just 142 total yards and quarterback Joe Burrow to a career-low 82 passing yards.
The Bengals lost Burrow to a wrist injury during a Week 11 loss at the Ravens. Backup Jake Browning began 3-1 as a starter in place of the 2020 No. 1 overall pick, but has lost back-to-back games the last two weeks to the Steelers and Chiefs.
Cincinnati, which had won the AFC North the previous two seasons, went to back-to-back AFC Championship Games and lost in the Super Bowl two seasons ago, is looking to avoid a winless AFC North record this season. The Bengals haven't been winless in the AFC North since 2002, the first year of the division's existence.
Cleveland could get to 12 regular-season wins for the first time since the franchise was reborn in 1999. The last time the Browns won 12 games in the regular season was in 1986, when they reached the first of three AFC Championship Games in four seasons.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns to play Bengals in Week 18 finale at 1 p.m. Sunday
