A clip from NFL Live showing the entire cast incorrectly predicting the Bengals to beat the Patriots in Week 1 Photo Credit: ESPN2
ESPNNFLBy Reice Shipley on

Last season, the NFL Live cast on ESPN fully acknowledged that when the entire cast feels confident in a prediction, it’s probably because they are all wrong. And for Week 1 of the NFL season, this exact scenario played out in the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots.

There were several instances last season where the entire cast was in unanimous agreement about a prediction, only for all of them to be proven wrong in the game, which the cast has since called the “NFL Live curse.”

Unfortunately, the curse has now carried over to the 2024-25 NFL season.

On Thursday ahead of the Week 1 slate of games, the NFL Live cast all predicted that the Bengals would defeat the Patriots.

The Patriots had other ideas, coming away with a 16-10 victory to get their season started off on the right foot.

Obviously, the quarterback matchup between Joe Burrow and Jacoby Brissett would naturally lend most to believe the Bengals should have been a safe pick to win this game. But the signs for a potential upset, which the NFL Live cast ignored, were there.

During Zac Taylor’s tenure in Cincinnati, the team was 1-4 (now 1-5) in season-opening games coming into this matchup. Star wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins were also questionable for most of the week leading up to the game.

It’s not like the cast, consisting of Laura Rutledge, Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky, and Mina Kimes, were the only ones picking the Bengals in this matchup. But given their track record of being wrong together quite often in the past, it was naturally something that was brought up to them by fans on social media.

Both Marcus Spears and Dan Orlovsky addressed comments about their incorrect predictions.

“That’s on us bruh,” wrote Spears on X.

“Thought it was a lock. That’s on Marcus sorry for that,” joked Orlovsky in response to Spears’ comment.

[NFL on ESPN on YouTube]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley