Cincinnati Bengals: 4 bold predictions for Week 5 versus the Cardinals
By Steve Rivera
For those fans who will complain about the negative nature of this prediction, I would remind you to rewatch the last four weeks. The Cincinnati Bengals are not a team trending up, they are not a team even flatlined. They are a team, in fact, trending down.
Week 1 was a mirage. For anyone who saw the Thursday night affair between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks, you’d be compelled to concede that the tight game between Seattle and Cincinnati was a one-off type of game. A game more fluke than an indicator of better times on the immediate horizon for the Bengals.
However, you still have to play the game. And picking between an 0-4 team and a 0-3-1 team isn’t so easy.
Fact is, excitement and optimism resides in Arizona. Kyler Murray is a player who is electric. He can make plays in ways an older Andy Dalton cannot. That’s a fact, not a slight. That said, Kingsbury doesn’t instill a lot of confidence as a head coach, at least not yet.
As for Cincinnati, the problems run deep. They are injury riddled, and this isn’t the feel good kind of team a lot of people fell for after Week 1. They are a team who looks every bit the part of a rebuild. They look less dysfunctional and more an organization lacking talent. Lacking playmakers.
Monday night in Pittsburgh showed what can happen when you think a fresh coat of paint can make a house look great. But slapping a new face on a tired organization translates to what fans saw in that 27-3 loss to the Steelers.
Next. Bengals: 4 to buy, sell, or hold in Week 5. dark
If it’s about one play that needs to be made, it’ll be made by Murray, not Dalton, not Mixon, and not by a play call from Zac Taylor. But with these two winless teams, the best prediction is it will be a close game.
Bengals-20
Cardinals-23