Amid unfounded rumors that the Chiefs purposefully gave up during their loss to Denver to ensure the Bengals would be eliminated, Travis Kelce delivered a fired-up message to Cincinnati saying that he wasn’t “scared of f---ing nobody” and that having the Bengals in the playoffs would have been “fun.”

The first two worked out in the Bengals' favor, however, with Kansas City playing its backups in the regular-season finale, Denver was able to blow K.C. out with ease, handing the Chiefs a 38-0 loss. This led to red-hot Cincinnati getting eliminated.

In the end, despite a five-game winning streak to close the season, the Cincinnati Bengals’ furious rally to make the 2025 NFL playoffs fell just short. With the Denver Broncos’ blowout win over a backup-laden Kansas City Chiefs team, Denver secured the AFC’s No. 7 seed, leaving an MVP-caliber Joe Burrow on the outside looking in of the postseason.

The HBO series Hard Knocks took an in-season look at the AFC North, which included the Bengals' heart-broken faces as the Broncos made the playoffs