Bengals injury report provides little reason for optimism regarding Tee Higgins' status

The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3 in games without star wide receiver Tee Higgins so far this season, and unfortunately the team's injury report this week provides little reason for optimism regarding Higgins' status for Cincinnati's Week 9 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Tee Higgins hasn't practiced this week due to a quad injury

Higgins missed Cincinnati's Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles with a quad injury that he suffered during practice last week, and so far that injury has kept him out of practice this week. Higgins didn't practice on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, leaving his status for the game against the Raiders very much in question. He's officially listed as doubtful for the contest.

Earlier this week, Zac Taylor provided an update on Higgins.

"We'll take it day to day," Taylor said of Higgins. "There are things he was trying to do Sunday morning. At the end, it was smart to limit that."

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The Bengals will have to hope that Higgins' quad gets better between now and Sunday, as he's been central to success for Cincinnati's offense this season. In five games, he has 29 catches for 341 yards and three touchdowns. He has also come up big when it comes to moving the chains for the Bengals with 21 first downs generated. Plus, the attention that he draws from opposing defenses opens up things for Ja'Marr Chase and the rest of the offense.

Obviously, the Bengals would love to have Higgins available for what quarterback Joe Burrow dubbed as a "must-win" game.

"This is a must-win game," Burrow said. "We're 3-5. You go to 3-6, then you gotta basically win out to get in. Urgency's very high every week from here on out. ...This is the situation that we find ourselves in," Burrow added. "We know what we have to do going forward, and we're going to attack that challenge to the best of our ability."

Having Higgins out on the filed clearly gives Cincinnati its best chance of winnning, so keep your fingers crossed, Bengals fans.