In week 7, the Bengals lost 27-0 to Indianapolis. What does that mean? I looked at all playoff rematches where:

• The teams only played once during the regular season (as, I think, division rivals represent a different equation)

• The rematch occurred in the same location as the original game

• The home team won the regular season meeting

This happened once last year, where the Saints also lost by 27 points on the road to the Seahawks during the regular season, and then revisited Seattle in the playoffs. Obviously Seattle won that rematch, too, which is not unusual. There have been 11 situations where the home team won by at least 27 during the regular season, and the home teams went 9-2 in the rematch. (And, it’s worth noting, that one of the wins came with Joe Montana starting the playoff game for the Chiefs, after Dave Krieg started the regular season loss.) The table below shows all playoff rematches between teams that met the above criteria.

Here’s how to read the second entry. In 1991, the Lions traveled back to Washington for the Conference Championship Game. Detroit was a 14-point underdog, and point spread data is included for all games since 1978. In the game, Detroit lost, 41-10. In the regular season, the teams met in Washington (remember, all games in this table were rematches at the same site) in week 1, and Detroit lost 45-0 (remember, all games in this table occurred from the perspective of the road team, and the road team lost in the first game). That -45 points differential was the 2nd most ever; the table is sorted by points differential in the regular season.

Some thoughts:

• Teams that lost by at least 27 the first time around are 2-9 in the rematch, but in only one of those games (The Catch), was Vegas higher on the home team than the books are on the 2014 Bengals.

• Regardless of the score in the initial meeting, the road teams are 23-53 in this situation.

• Teams have lost two straight in this situation: the 2013 Saints in Seattle and the 2012 Texans in New England, but road teams are also 4-5 since 2008.

• The Colts lost to the Steelers in 2005 in this situation, which is the last time Indianapolis was in this spot.

Other notes: If Andy Dalton loses, he’ll tie Y.A. Tittle as the only quarterbacks to lose their first four playoff starts. Meanwhile, Marvin Lewis has already gone 11 straight seasons in Cincinnati without winning a playoff game; with a loss today, he becomes the first to go 12 straight years.