Joe Burrow: Bengals Face 'Must-Win Game' vs. Raiders in NFL Week 9 Amid 3-5 Start

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow doesn't think the stakes in Sunday's matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders could be much higher.

Burrow called it a "must-win game" because the Bengals would have almost no margin for error moving forward if they slipped to 3-6 on the season.

Cincinnati isn't too much worse off now compared to when it reached the Super Bowl and then advanced to the AFC title game. The team was 5-4 through nine games in both 2021 and 2022.

Granted, the Bengals had the same record last year and wound up missing the playoffs.

To Burrow's point, 10 wins was the cutoff in the AFC wild-card race in 2023 and could be the bar once again with the conference standings where the are. The Los Angeles Chargers occupy seventh place at 4-3.

Playing the 2-6 Raiders isn't really a game Cincinnati can throw away when looking ahead to the rest of the schedule. The team still has to play the Chargers, Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys and has two meetings with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If the Bengals can't beat the Raiders, then what the odds of them reeling off the kind of winning streak needed to put them at 10 or 11 wins?

Many expect Cincy to turn a corner at some point because this team is too good to only have three wins. But the 37-17 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 8 was potentially a big reality check.

Should the Bengals go out and lay an egg against Las Vegas, it will become a lot harder to buy into the as a serious postseason contender.