I'm gonna go with yea rest the starters for 2 reasons.

1. Titans and Chiefs have meh matchups for the #1 seed and both would have to lose.

2. Bengals are beat up on the offensive line.
Without knowing Quinton Spain's diagnosis I hope they rest him and open up a one game
competition for the RG and RT spots while resting Jonah Williams and Trey Hopkin's knee. Start Fred Johnson, Jackson Carman, Trey Hill, Hakeem Adeniji, and Isaiah Prince possibly working in D'Ante Smith.

If either one of the Chiefs or Titans lose next week, and we win, we move to the #2 seed. That would greatly improve our chances of playing more home playoff games. Likewise, a loss and a Buffalo win drops us to #4 seed which reduces the chance.

Joe is competitive and doesn't like the fact that we lost to the Browns earlier this year. He's also fearless. I think if he's healthy he'll want to play. He's not going to want to just take a loss to play it safe. If you want to sit him you should make a show of chaining him to the bench while he fights to get loose.

So as long as Joe is ready to go and we have a chance to improve or maintain our playoff seeding, I think he plays.

(01-03-2022, 03:11 AM)Synric Wrote: I'm gonna go with yea rest the starters for 2 reasons.

1. Titans and Chiefs have meh matchups for the #1 seed and both would have to lose.

2. Bengals are beat up on the offensive line.
        Without knowing Quinton Spain's diagnosis I hope they rest him and open up a one game
        competition for the RG and RT spots while resting Jonah Williams and Trey Hopkin's knee. Start    Fred Johnson, Jackson Carman, Trey Hill, Hakeem Adeniji, and Isaiah Prince possibly working in D'Ante Smith.

Do we know if he is even healthy yet?

Been inactive on game days. Figured he was still hurt or if he is healthy, that is just a really bad sign he isn't the answer if he can't even make the active roster with the injuries.

Chiefs vs Broncos are playing Saturday, so we know the results of that game.

Root for Pitt to beat Cleveland Monday night which guarantees them a season losing record otherwise Cleve's motive next Sunday would be to be 9-8 and above .500, and out of last place. That will be Clev's motivation in front of their home fans.

EMPHATICALLY NO!! The odds of us landing the #1 seed are TINY. We have to win, Chiefs would have to lose to the Broncos and Tenn would have to lose to Davis Mills. The benefits especially for guys like Wilson and Burrow far outweigh us rolling the dice vs an elite DL with a beat up OL. Not worth it. Take the week to heal everyone up and focus in on PLAYOFFS!

Hopefully they can use this as a bye week and get people rested for the playoffs.

I would like to not rest the starters. It just never seems to go well and we are offensively the hottest we’ve ever been, and I’d hate to stop that. We will know by game time if the number 1 is in play, but 2 could still be in reach. IMO I’d rather play Indy/La/LV than New England/Buffalo. That being said, I would understand if they rested their starters.

Ummmm, why isn't this a poll thread?

(01-03-2022, 10:20 AM)Tomkat Wrote: Ummmm, why isn't this a poll thread?

Fixed it.

(01-03-2022, 10:24 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Fixed it.

Finally, an answer we can all agree with.

(01-02-2022, 08:27 PM)BengalFanInNJ Wrote: I’ll bring the pizza myself. Because, I’ll be careful and there is no such thing as good pizza outside of New Jersey. Sorry.

Clearly, you've never been to Italy...

lol what an, "American," thing to say <_<

As for the thread, whether I want to rest guys or not, seeding for #1 or #2 is at stake, so we all know that the starters will play.

At halftime, scoreboard watching, if KC and the Titans are up by 30 in their respective games, then we'll bench people, I'm sure of it.

Bengals also need Bills to win or Patriots to lose as Patriots would have tiebreaker in seeding over Bengals.

(01-03-2022, 03:11 AM)Synric Wrote: I'm gonna go with yea rest the starters for 2 reasons.

1. Titans and Chiefs have meh matchups for the #1 seed and both would have to lose.

2. Bengals are beat up on the offensive line.
        Without knowing Quinton Spain's diagnosis I hope they rest him and open up a one game
        competition for the RG and RT spots while resting Jonah Williams and Trey Hopkin's knee. Start    Fred Johnson, Jackson Carman, Trey Hill, Hakeem Adeniji, and Isaiah Prince possibly working in D'Ante Smith.

To me, there's no question that you play to win.  

Chances at the #1 seed are slim, but there is a decent chance the Titans or KC slips up and we can get the #2 seed, which guarantees a home game in the 2nd round if we advance.  It also means much better odds of hosting the AFCCG if we get that far.

The other reason is if we fall to the #4 seed, we're 99% getting either the Bills or Patriots as the #5 seed.  I would much rather face the Raiders, Colts, Chargers, Steelers, or Dolphins than one of those two teams.

(01-02-2022, 06:44 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: Even if the titans lose, chiefs lose and bengals win, does that give the bengals the number 1 seed?

Not sure of the tiebreaker scenerio, obviously on the chiefs front we usurp them… but not sure about the titans.

If #1 isn’t a possibility, you rest burrow, mixon, chase, Higgins and boyd

Even if Bengals win, Titans lose, and Chiefs lose, the Bengals could still lose out on the #1 seed if the Patriots win and Bills lose.
The seeding would be:
1) Patriots
2) Bengals
3) Titans
4) Chiefs

(01-03-2022, 12:05 PM)Whatever Wrote: To me, there's no question that you play to win.  

Chances at the #1 seed are slim, but there is a decent chance the Titans or KC slips up and we can get the #2 seed, which guarantees a home game in the 2nd round if we advance.  It also means much better odds of hosting the AFCCG if we get that far.

The other reason is if we fall to the #4 seed, we're 99% getting either the Bills or Patriots as the #5 seed.  I would much rather face the Raiders, Colts, Chargers, Steelers, or Dolphins than one of those two teams.

There's a decent chance miles Garrett takes burrows head clean off in what is probably a meaningless game.

They resting the starters or else they're ***** idiots.

(01-03-2022, 12:17 PM)Savagehenry54 Wrote: There's a decent chance miles Garrett takes burrows head clean off in what is probably a meaningless game.

They resting the starters or else they're ***** idiots.

At first, I was thinking "it's stupid to play the starters with the possibility of a bye so unlikely," but then I thought about it and realized that, if the Titans and Chiefs lose and we win, we could have homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

Also, if one of them loses, we could be at home until the AFC Championship, and the Chiefs could lose to New England or someone.

Joe's knee concerns me a bit, though, too.

Either way, I'd just give the ball to Mixon 30 times a game but play the starters while the game is still in question.

(01-02-2022, 09:14 PM)Go Cards Wrote: If it were up to me I would treat it like a late preseason game and play the starters for a quarter or so to get them work and then pull them.

But really just going to let the team and coaches make this call and then support it.

This is a nice plan.   Keep their chops up and then pull them.

If the Browns are gunning for any of our players (especially Burrow) pull them and give players that need reps (Johnson/ D'ante Smith, etc.) get them and rest our starters the rest of the way.

Burrow's leg has been hurting since the Chargers game.   Mixon's foot, Wilson's shoulder, there are a lot of guys nicked up.  Love to see them rest for most of the game.

Taylor is literally in a no-win scenario here. If he pulls the starters, and they come out cold in the playoffs, he will be blasted by many as the coach who took the hottest QB in the league and benched him, ruining his momentum. If he plays him and he gets hurt, those same people will be blasting him as the coach who risked the starters in a meaningless game. He simply cannot win on this one.

Play the franchise QB when there is still something to play for. No question.

He's the hottest QB in football and the Bengals have a shot (albeit slim) of getting the #1 seed.

If Burrow would not have come up a little lame at the end of the Chiefs game, I would guarantee that he starts, and plays in most of this one. As long as he is healthy enough to play, he will be in there.

Cleveland -3 has to indicate Vegas thinks we’ll rest our starters.