SalishHawkFan
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Every year, this team is expected to be the Real Deal. Each year, they fold. The reason? Andy Dalton. Looks good one game, terrible the next. Never looks good in the playoffs. Wilts under pressure.
This year, everyone is hot for Cincy again. And Dalton has faced the 16th, 23rd, 24th and 28th ranked defenses per DVOA. And while it's early yet to be quoting DVOA, those are not good defenses. Dalton's been sacked only 2 times and is looking good with 9 TD and 1 INT. He's having a good year so far. Now he'll be up against a REAL defense. I doubt he'll throw for over 200 yds.
And then there's the running game, with Bernard and Hill splitting duties and Bernard seems the better back, at least against the crap defenses he's ran against. But he's never busted 700 yds in a season. So that's not gonna happen.
Meanwhile, the Hawks are #1 in special teams and Cincinatti is 23rd. So expect Tyler Lockett to be a thing.
We're going to have good field position. They're not going to, other than a drive or two I'm sure they'll score. Good as our d is, the Bengals at home will score.
Which brings us, at last, to the other side of the ball. Cincy has a very good defense. 2nd against the run. 11th vs the pass. It's top 10 DVOA. Our offense? Not so much. Worse yet, they're ranked 5th in pass rush, right behind GB, which padded their stats against the Seahawks. #1 is the Rams, but take us out of the stats and Cincy is better than both the teams that beat us at getting to the QB.
It's going to get ugly.
Will our offense be able to score? Probably, thanks to Wilson. Don't expect much from Rawls, no knock on him, but Cincy hasn't allowed teams to run the ball.
So in summation, I expect the LOB to severely curtail the Bengals offense and Dalton to have a bad game. I expect our offense to look even worse than it did today and seriously struggle. I think it will be a low scoring game because of those factors and that our special teams will win the battle of field position and ultimately, we win a squeaker.
This year, everyone is hot for Cincy again. And Dalton has faced the 16th, 23rd, 24th and 28th ranked defenses per DVOA. And while it's early yet to be quoting DVOA, those are not good defenses. Dalton's been sacked only 2 times and is looking good with 9 TD and 1 INT. He's having a good year so far. Now he'll be up against a REAL defense. I doubt he'll throw for over 200 yds.
And then there's the running game, with Bernard and Hill splitting duties and Bernard seems the better back, at least against the crap defenses he's ran against. But he's never busted 700 yds in a season. So that's not gonna happen.
Meanwhile, the Hawks are #1 in special teams and Cincinatti is 23rd. So expect Tyler Lockett to be a thing.
We're going to have good field position. They're not going to, other than a drive or two I'm sure they'll score. Good as our d is, the Bengals at home will score.
Which brings us, at last, to the other side of the ball. Cincy has a very good defense. 2nd against the run. 11th vs the pass. It's top 10 DVOA. Our offense? Not so much. Worse yet, they're ranked 5th in pass rush, right behind GB, which padded their stats against the Seahawks. #1 is the Rams, but take us out of the stats and Cincy is better than both the teams that beat us at getting to the QB.
It's going to get ugly.
Will our offense be able to score? Probably, thanks to Wilson. Don't expect much from Rawls, no knock on him, but Cincy hasn't allowed teams to run the ball.
So in summation, I expect the LOB to severely curtail the Bengals offense and Dalton to have a bad game. I expect our offense to look even worse than it did today and seriously struggle. I think it will be a low scoring game because of those factors and that our special teams will win the battle of field position and ultimately, we win a squeaker.
