Alex Smith has had one of his most successful season with deep ball throws, and that offensive line is giving him time to throw.
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Win or lose, the Bengals would have the No. 3 seed and would host the New York Jets on either Saturday, January 9 or Sunday, January 10. Backup quarterback A.J. McCarron is preparing to start this game for the Bengals. “It’s hard to get to the playoffs, period, in this league”.
BC: “I do think so”.
Heading into Week 18 of league action, the Bengals are 12-4 Straight Up (SU) and 12-3-1 Against The Spread (ATS).
If McCarron leads the Bengals to victory on Saturday, he will become the first quarterback to win a playoff game with such little experience since 1979, when Gifford Nielsen led the Houston Oilers to a win in San Diego.
“I feel that we are getting stronger”, linebacker Lawrence Timmons said.
Now, it only stands to intensify when the two teams meet with seasons on the line. The players have earned the opportunity to be in this spot. They are making a team-record fifth consecutive playoff appearance, and sixth in seven years. “After this week it goes down to eight”. Since the Bengals like to put one or two of their outside cornerbacks in press coverage the Steelers should design pass plays that include fade, streak and slant routes. “It’s all about football”.
An initial glance at the Bengals vs Steelers game from Week 8 doesn’t seem to provide a logical explanation for why the Bengals came away from Pittsburgh with a victory. “The biggest question for them is at the quarterback position”.
Cincinnati is an even 2-2 SU in games where it wins the turnover battle, yet 9-1 SU when losing the turnover battle.
The big news this week in Cincinnati is that Dalton had his cast removed and is close to throwing again in practice. The Bengals are hoping that Andy Dalton will be able to make an expedited return just in time for Saturday’s games.
His counterpart has had his struggles lately, but like the Steelers’ defensive gambles, Ben Roethlisberger’s mistakes might have something to do with the explosiveness of the offense he’s leading and the chances it takes.
But it’s the Steelers, of course.
Here we go Steelers!
The Bengals aim to turn the page.
When Tomlin was asked if he felt Ben Roethlisberger relied too heavily on receiver Antonio Brown he replied probably about the same as most of us would reply. It’s a playoff game.
By then, who knows where Dalton will be physically. “I like our odds”.
After an initial 12 play, 80 yard touchdown scoring drive for the Steelers on the opening series of the game, the Bengals’ defense tightened up, and only allowed a pair of field goals for the remainder of the game. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2010 AFC championship. With so much at stake, look for the teams to temper the trash talk.
DeAngelo Williams went down in the team’s Week 17 victory with an ankle injury. He threw two interceptions against the Steelers but has since thrown four touchdowns and no picks in three starts – two wins – with a 100.1 passer rating. It will take a herculean effort by McCarron to break the Bengals’ playoff curse, but it’s not impossible. He only had 34 yards on four catches and five targets, but one of those catches was a five-yard touchdown in which he tooled on the Ravens defensive back covering him.
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Pittsburgh’s defense hasn’t been the greatest this season, what is their primary goal in stopping the Bengals? If Williams is unable to play on Wildcard Weekend the Steelers would be down to their third string RB Fitzgerald Toussaint or possibly Jordan Todman. Kirk Cousins has this team playing very well and has lead them to 4 straight wins. Burfict was fined around $70,000 for multiple incidents during that game.
