Predicting Bengals' final 6 games of 2023 season: How bad can it get?
Week 15 vs. Vikings
The Vikings have been one of the most up-and-down teams in the league. They started 0-3, then went on a magical run, lost their starting quarterback, continued the magical run, and now they've hit a wall. The Josh Dobbs story was fun while it lasted but he had a really bad game against the Bears and was exposed. It doesn't hurt that the Bengals have already faced him and handled him back when he was with the Cardinals earlier this season.
Maybe the Vikings come to town and Dobbs plays like he did early on during his Vikings tenure. The Bengals defense is great at forcing turnovers though and Dobbs showed that he can have games where he coughs up the football a lot. The defense hasn't had a great year but this game hopefully goes on to be one of their best of the season.
Prediction: Bengals win 21-17
Week 16 @ Steelers
Round 1 went to the Steelers despite the hated team from Pittsburgh only putting up 16 points. The Bengals allowed the Steelers to put up their best offensive stats in 59 tries but it still only led to 16 points. That's good news moving forward for the Bengals because that means they can hang with this Steelers team.
The bad news is that by this point in the season, the games will mean more to the Steelers. They're in playoff contention right now and the Bengals could very well be out of it when Week 16 rolls around. Division games are always tough even when they shouldn't be and that's what I predict will happen when these two teams meet again in less than a month.
The Bengals defense allows a lot of explosive plays but they make their opponents pay in the red zone and that's what we'll see in the Steel City in late December.