The Cincinnati Bengals saw off the Oakland Raiders in the Wild Card round this past Saturday to setup a trip to the Number 1 seed Tennessee Titans.
Joe Burrow moved the ball with ease down the field but often struggled when they got in and around the redzone, settling for Field Goals against a Raiders defence that had been poor defending this area of the field during the regular season.
Moving the ball versus this Titans defence shouldn’t be a problem either, with Jackrabbit Jenkins and Chris Jackson notably weak against the deep passes. However, Mike Vrabel’s team have one of the best redzone defences.
Joe Mixon is a top running back and could be a key to the Bengals offence in this game. The Titans have one of the better run stopping defences so if the former Sooner has any success then it could mean the Bengals win.
Offensively for the Titans, Ryan Tannehill is arguably one of the lower rated quarterbacks in this season’s playoffs. He was found out versus the likes of New England, Pittsburgh and even Houston following Derrick Henry’s injury in week 8.
Although the Bengals don’t have a great defence they can certainly create turnovers on the quarterback who threw 14 interceptions in the regular season. He can also be slow identifying pressure in the pocket and has fumbled 10 times.
The key in the game may be stopping the likes of Derrick Henry, D’Onta Foreman and Dontrell Hilliard. The latter pair had good games against Houston and Miami in the final two weeks of the season, whilst Henry is the best running back in the league… when healthy. No one knows what condition he’s going to be until these two take to the field.
It will also be worth knowing how healthy the Bengals are up front defensively as they finished their wild card win with just five healthy players on the d-line.
This should be a close game but I am leaning towards Joe Burrow to pull out another victory in this one.
Pick: Cincinnati Bengals +4