Sunday Early Afternoon – Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

No Thursday night action this week, but that won’t slow us down. We keep the action rolling with an early afternoon game in the AFC North between the two teams that just might hate each other the most out of any other teams in the league. Especially after the Burfict/Brown incident in the 2015 playoffs. Many of the players on those teams are still around and I’ll guarantee you that none of them have have forgotten what happened in that game. You’ll want to dial this one up to kick off your NFL Sunday.

Keys to the Game

Bengals

As usual, the key for the Bengals is going to be getting the ball into their best player’s hands — A.J. Green. He was even more dominant last year without Marvin Jones and Mo Sanu lining up with him, even though opponents were doing all they could to stop him. Pittsburgh will try the same with double teams and bracket coverage, so the Bengals may need to get creative at times. However, at the end of the day, there’s no one on Pittsburgh’s defense that can match up with Green and it will be on full display whenever Green finds himself one on one. Automatic touchdown. His success will open up room for the rest of the Bengals offense to find their footing and put up points on this softer Pittsburgh defense.

Steelers

Pittsburgh is going to score in this one, there’s not really any question about that. The key for them is going to be playing a little defense and getting Andy Dalton uncomfortable. The Steelers don’t have the personnel to try and stop A.J. Green, so the next best thing is stopping his quarterback. That’s a much more attainable goal for this defense that doesn’t exactly draw comparisons to the old Steel Curtain, despite James Harrison’s best efforts. If they can get Dalton off his game and make him turn the ball over a time or two, it’ll be a cakewalk for the Steelers.