Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

In a battle of Ohio in the modern era, who wins? Best Browns team vs Best Bengals team?

Neither franchise with a Lombardi trophy, who would win if the best Browns team (your call one of Kosar's perhaps?) against the best Bengals team (Anderson's, Esiason's or Burrows Super Bowl teams?).

I tend to think of the Browns as the more physical of the two. I could forsee Minnifield and Dixon shutting down the Bengals wideouts.

Your thoughts on how that match-up would go?

saturdaysarebetter wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 11:14 am In a battle of Ohio in the modern era, who wins? Best Browns team vs Best Bengals team?

Neither franchise with a Lombardi trophy, who would win if the best Browns team (your call one of Kosar's perhaps?) against the best Bengals team (Anderson's, Esiason's or Burrows Super Bowl teams?).

I tend to think of the Browns as the more physical of the two. I could forsee Minnifield and Dixon shutting down the Bengals wideouts.

Your thoughts on how that match-up would go?

I think we are talking about the 1981 Bengals (between that one, 1988, and 2021 or 22 for me) vs the 1986 Browns.

Tough call, but I’d probably favor Cleveland in that matchup. Ken Anderson at his peak was an MVP, and the defense, while not the best, did still finish 12th by points in their year.

Though Cleveland probably would have the better run game, and as you said, secondary.

The Bengals with Esiason held a slight win advantage over the Browns with Kosar, despite the Browns winning the division in 85, 86, 87 and 89. The Browns 1986 team would have had interesting games against the 88 and 81 Bengals teams. The 80 Browns and 81 Bengals would have been a great matchup as well, though the 1981 Bengals team was more a fluke.

the 1981 Bengals team was more a fluke.

They did make the playoffs in 1982, but they were not that far from starting 0-5 in 1981.

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2026 11:29 pm

the 1981 Bengals team was more a fluke.

They did make the playoffs in 1982, but they were not that far from starting 0-5 in 1981.

The 1986 Browns weren’t that far off from 8-8

IMO, the '81 Bengals and '88 Bengals are each better than either the '86 Browns or '87 Browns.

'81 Bengals a real 12-4 SB team to me! Not a fluke at all. I guess it should be seen as theory, but I've opined before that the big reason for Cincy's surge that season was just simply how tough their schedules were the two preceding years https://www.profootballresearchers.com/ ... 579#p37579; a baptism-under-fire, per say,

That said, I got to place both Paul Brown's '73 and '75 squads even higher despite no actual playoff victory; the competition was simply just so understandably tough! If I ever thought that Paul Brown wasn't the best strictly-Bengals HC in Bengals history, which I opined in this previous thread below that I created, I was wrong. JohnH's comment ended up setting my opinion in his direction.

https://www.profootballresearchers.com/ ... 844#p52844

The 1986 Browns weren’t that far off from 8-8

They certainly weren't uber-dominant. They only beat the crappy Lions by three, they lost to the 4-12 Packers, and they had to go OT at home two weeks in a row to beat the soon-to-be upstart (but still struggling) Oiler and Steeler teams. They were also bailed out by Gastineau in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. That was a game they should have lost (I remember telling my uncle that day that they should have lost. He lived in Strongsville right outside the city, and he rooted for the Browns at the time).