The Cincinnati Bengals have announced a never-before-worn uniform combination for their Sunday Night Football matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.
For the first time ever, the team will pair their white jerseys with their new orange pants. They’ll wear that with their orange helmets and white hosiery.
This will mark the third time this season that the Bengals will wear the orange britches.
They debuted the pants opening weekend, going orange/orange/orange/black, losing to the Patriots by a score of 16-10.
The orange pants would make their second appearance in Week 5, a 41-38 overtime loss to the Ravens. In that game, the team went orange/black/orange/black.
So, if you’re keeping score at home, the Bengals are 0-2 in the orange pants this season, with both losses coming at home. They’ll try to halt the orange pants losing streak Sunday night, this time on the road, against the LA Chargers.
I’m certainly not going to go so far as to say the Bengals are the Oregon of the NFL, but with the addition of the orange pants this year, the team could conceivably go a full season without ever repeating a uniform combination. The team has two helmets, and three different jerseys, and socks (black, white and orange), plus four different sets of pants (they have white pants with black stripes as well as orange).
In their 10 games prior to this coming Sunday evening, the team has worn seven different uni combos, with three repeats. Their combos so far this season (O = orange, B = black, W = white). For pants, W-B = white pants with black stripes, W-O = white with orange. Combos shown in bold are repeats.
Week 1: O/O/O/B
Week 2: O/W/W-B/B (also worn Week 6)
Week 3: O/B/W-O/O (also worn Week 9)
Week 4: O/B/B/O
Week 5: O/B/O/B
Week 6: O/W/W-B/B (Wk 2)
Week 7: O/W/B/W (also worn Week 10)
Week 8: W/W/W-B/W
Week 9: O/B/W-O/O (Wk 3)
Week 10: O/W/B/W (Wk 7)
So, out of 10 weeks, the Bengals have worn unique combinations in seven of them. Sunday night’s combo will make eight different combos in 11 weeks.
One of the things I find appealing about the Bengals — who look good almost every week — is how they never wear the same color socks and pants unless they’re going mono-black or mono-white. I was pleasantly surprised in Week 1 that the team paired black socks with the all-orange uniform. While this pants/socks protocol is aesthetically pleasing, it does limit their ability to go without repeating a combo. Still, it would be possible if the team so chose to go an entire 17 week season without repeating a single uniform combo.
The team might also break out a new combination the week after this, when they are scheduled to wear their orange alternate jerseys. They wore orange tops in Week 1, so pairing those with either white or black pants would produce a new look.
What do you think of the Bengals uniform proclivities? Should they try to wear a unique combination for an entire season, or do they already have “too many” options? Would you prefer they stick with just one look for home games and one for the road, with the exception of the three weeks per season in which they are permitted to wear alternate helmets/jerseys? Are there any combinations they haven’t yet worn you’d like to see? I personally LOVE the orange pants, and I’d like to seem them worn more often. What about you? And do you have a favorite combination? I think my favorite is O/B/O/B.
Who dey?
The Oregon Bengals.
It’s become a fashion show up in here.
Black socks would be a lot better.
Agreed!
Their white uniforms feel very out of place in the set, and only look good with the white pants w/black stripes link. They ought to keep that uniform combo to pair with the white helmet and make another road jersey to better match the rest of the set.
I hope these become the primary pant option for them moving forward. They look excellent with all three tops, but especially the black top.
The Bengals kinda have a history of borrowing from their cross-state rivals…and there’s room for 2 teams in orange pants (sorry, Broncos – they’re a bad look for you).
I don’t like this week’s combo…O/B/O/B has become my fav, with the O/B/B/O a close 2nd.
I actually really like the orange-black-orange-black combo, and the orange-white-orange-white combo should look good as well. Orange-white-orange-black would look good too.
The Bengals need to fix their white pants with the orange-and-white tiger stripes, and make them orange-and-blackm more like the old ones. (link) As I’ve said before, all Bengal tigers have black stripes; there are orange Bengal tigers with black stripes, and white Bengal tigers with black stripes, but no white Bengal tigers with orange stripes or orange Bengal tigers with white stripes. Those pants just look wrong and don’t work with the rest of the uniform.
I actually liked the colored side panels on their Boomer era pants. They even rocked some black pants with that look as well in 2003. That was right before the crappy set was introduced.
White Orange White Black is something I’d like to see.
I’ve tried it on madden and it does look pretty good. Think all the striping being black really makes it.
O/W/O/W is gonna look SHARP! Hopefully, the chargers go W/B/W/B
OBOB is an awesome look. All the other combos range from “good” to “very good”…
Love this! Give me all the combos as long as striping makes sense. Remove the silly uniform rules NFL and let teams be creative. Also, the Bengals need a white and orange away uniform as well to go with the black pants with orange stripes. Kind of like Oklahoma State does it.
Strongly agree. I don’t dislike the current white jersey, but it should have a little more orange. Maybe not a full return to the 2010’s shoulder yokes, but some orange would do wonders.
Their white jersey really only matches when paired with the white helmet and the white pants with black stripes. The white jersey barely has any orange in it, unlike past versions of their whites which managed to incorporate orange and black together in the tiger stripes.
Their set is a hard miss for me, it feels like a college uniform, not NFL, and the constant mix and match only furthers this. To me NFL teams have a consistent identity. That means you have a dark home uniform, that stays the same top to bottom, and a white road uniform that stays the same. The only exception really being when wearing white at home due to heat, in which case a team like the Dolphins who typically pair their dark pants with a white jersey on the road, would keep their white home pants when wearing a white jersey at home.
This was the uniform convention that existed +90% of the time in the NFL for decades. It looks sloppy and unprofessional with costumes instead of uniforms now.
Get off my lawn!
In a vacuum, when the Bengals wear orange/black/orange or orange/white/orange, they look nice, but in reality, they look way too much like the Browns when they do that.
The Bengals need a road jersey with orange stripes. The white socks never look good. I think the orange or black would look better with this combo.
Looks good! Much better with white jersey rather than black
I must be missing something. Help me out, please. The Bengals have never worn this combo before – but the lead picture on the story is Joe Burrow wearing said uni combo in game action.
Photoshop. Not sure when it was created, but it was before the orange pants were even introduced.
Here’s the full picture…which showed the team wearing black socks (their combo this Sunday night is with white socks):
link
Excellent! Thank you.
This is a sharp combo.
Their orange/white/black/white is nice too( think they wore that last week)
Id like to see orange/white/black/orange, that would be sharp too
Orange black orange in black is my favorite set
I think the reason why all these combos work is because they still look like the Bengals. The unique stripe pattern allows for a clear identity despite changing colors. Seems like it’s a pretty short list of teams who can mix colors and maintain their visual identity well, or at least remain esthetically pleasing.
Chargers.
Rams.
The “test” I hear mentioned on this site is:
I turned the tv on and I could tell it was blank team instantly…
The Bengals should have had orange pants before the Browns did.
That would have been 1974. Bengals originals uniforms were already copies of the browns. Browns also had to delay the white helmet a season because the Bengals were hyping the white Bengal uniform early I’m the off-season.
Bengals have become one of my favorite teams to watch because of the mix and match uniforms. Even in mono they look good, except for mono white with the white helmet. That is too much, as there is no orange involved. Should they pair it with orange socks I would like that a lot more.
Damn, these look nice. This is my favorite white option for them. Needs black socks, though.
Not a fan of the orange leotards unless w the black jersey. Even then – bleh.
This team has a unique set of losing issues and worrying about costumes at this point seems absurd. Wear your regs until you figure out how to help Burrow and Chase win a game or two..
Dressed for success!