Week 12 at Tennessee Titans
Like the Chiefs, the Titans are also looking to get back at Cincy after they pulled off an upset and won their first-ever road playoff game against them in the Divisional Round last year. This team is not too different from the team the Bengals beat last year, minus their former star wideout A.J. Brown, who proved to be a big problem for the defense in their one matchup, catching 5 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown.
So, since he's gone, you might be thinking 'oh, this should be an easy win then, right?'. No, not really. Most of their losses this season have come on the road, in fact, every one of them since Week 1 has. On top of that, the Titans have a sneakily good defense. They're never in the conversation for the best defense in the league, however, outside of an embarrassing loss to the Bills, they haven't given up more than 22 points in a game this season.
Their passing defense is middle in the road in terms of yardage, however, their rushing sits second in the league. They are also pretty good at taking the ball away from opposing offenses, in the upper half of the league as they are 12th in that statistic.
Oh, and remember how Burrow was sacked 9 times in that Divisional game? Yeah, well there's a chance they could put up a similar performance here, as the Titans are Top 10 in sacks and pressures.
Also, while the Bengals were able to contain them in that game, you can never count out Derrick Henry. He's been a top 3 running back in the league for the last three seasons and a nightmare to tackle. Again, the Bengals' defense did a good job of doing it in that Divisional matchup, but that doesn't mean they'll do it again here. They can, but it's nowhere near a guarantee.
With that, we're onto the last matchup that I consider to be one of the toughest, and it may surprise you...