The Cincinnati Bengals will try to snap the longest streak in the NFL on Sunday.
Not theirs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’.
Tampa Bay has won five consecutive season openers, which is tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for the longest active streak in the league.
The Bengals, on the other hand, haven’t even won back-to-back season openers since 2014-16, when they won three in a row.
Cincinnati’s franchise record is four in a row, which happened way back in years 2 through 5 of existence from 1969-1972.
Making the Buccaneers’ current streak even more impressive is that three of the five wins have come on the road.
The Eagles also have won three consecutive road games in season openers, but they will be at home Sunday.
If the Buccaneers beat the Bengals, they will be just the 14th team since the 1970 merger to win four straight road games in season openers.
The record is 10 by the Dallas Cowboys from 1970-84.
The longest active streak belongs to the Pittsburgh Steelers with five in a row from 2020-present. But like the Eagles, the Steelers will be at home in Week 1 this year.
Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles has been one of the most successful head coaches in NFL history in season openers, going 6-2.
There are 130 men who have coached at least five season openers, and Bowles’ .750 winning percentage is tied for 11th all time.
The top 10 is dotted with Hall of Famers.
Jim Harbaugh 6-0 (1.000)
Nick Sirianni 5-0 (1.000)
Raymond Berry 5-0 (1.000)
George Allen 7-1 (.875)
Don Coryell 11-2 (.846)
Tom Landry 16-3 (.842)
Paul Brown 5-1 (.833)
Norm van Brocklin 4-1 (.800)
Mike Ditka 11-3 (.786)
Jimmy Johnson 7-2 (.778)
Tied with Bowles at .750 are Mike Shanahan (15-5), Rex Ryan (6-2) and Ken Whisenhunt (6-2).
Conversely, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is 2-5 in season openers.
Among those with at least five games, Taylor’s winning percentage is tied for 110th.
Former Bengals head coach Bruce Coslet also went 2-5.
Among current head coaches, only one has a worse winning percentage than Taylor – Mike Vrabel fell to 2-6 (2.50) Wednesday night at Seattle.
Taylor will slip back into a tie with Vrabel if the Bengals lose to the Buccaneers.
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