The Bengals are set to make a little uniform history in Miami, and it comes with a familiar look.
Cincinnati announced months ago that it will hold another “Open in Orange” game to open the 2026 season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That setup already has a bit of baggage for the Bengals.
They lost the first “Open in Orange” game in 2024, a 16-10 defeat to the New England Patriots. In that game, Cincinnati wore orange pants with its orange jerseys, a combo it has not worn again since.
This time, the Bengals are bringing back the same look they used in last year’s Week 2 home opener: orange jerseys, white pants with orange stripes and orange socks. It’s a rare uniform combination for the franchise, but one that has worked every time it’s shown up.
The Bengals have never lost in that setup. The only other appearance came in 2021 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, when Cincinnati won 24-21 on Thursday night football.
The orange jerseys themselves have been a strong spot for Cincinnati since they were introduced in 2004. The Bengals are 28-11-1 in orange, a .713 winning percentage. In every other jersey during that stretch, they are 147-166-3.
That recent orange run had gone cold before last year’s win over Jacksonville. Cincinnati had dropped three straight games in the orange tops before snapping the skid.
The last few orange-jersey appearances have produced plenty of results, good and bad. The Bengals beat Jacksonville 31-27 on Sept. 14, 2025, then fell to Pittsburgh 44-38 on Dec.
1, 2024. Before that came the 16-10 loss to New England on Sept.
8, 2024. Cincinnati also lost to Pittsburgh 16-10 in 2023, beat Kansas City 27-24 in 2022, and knocked off Kansas City again 34-31 in January 2022.
The full list goes back to the first orange-jersey game in 2004, when Cincinnati beat Dallas 26-3 while wearing black pants. Since then, the orange look has become one of the Bengals’ most successful uniform choices, even if the exact pant combination they’re bringing back now has only shown up twice.
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