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With the combination of a good young team and an attractive schedule of home games, the Bengals decided not to take advantage of a new rule that allows teams to reduce their minimum percentage of non-premium ticket sales as low as 85.

With the good young team not playing very well, that attractive schedule of homes games gradually has gotten less attractive.

As a result, Sunday’s visit from the defending Super Bowl champions won’t be televised locally. The team made the announcement on Thursday afternoon.

All we know is that the Bengals haven’t sold 100 percent of the non-premium tickets. It’s not known how close they came, an important factor in assessing whether the Bengals should have bought the excess tickets at 34 cents on the dollar.

It’s the first game this season that the Bengals have failed to sell out. And it gives Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (whose team helped sell out the stadium in Week Nine) something with which to tweak his brother, Eli.

Then again, Eli still has that second Super Bowl ring.