Bengals @ Chiefs Predictions

[HarleyDog]

(10-20-2018, 02:19 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I can easily see our defense giving up 38, but the Chiefs defense is allowing 28.7 points, good for 27th in the league...and our offense is averaging 29.0 points, good for 6th in the league. I don't think KC holds us to 20. Not to mention we scored 34 in our only prime-time game this year. 


I'm a realist and as much as I agree with some of the negativity, I gotta reel you in on some of it.

1. We didn't get "smoked" vs the Steelers, we lost on the last play of the game. Plus we've been losing to the Steelers consistently for 16 years now, and still had some winning seasons, so I don't see how the Steelers loss should be referenced when making predictions against non-Steelers opponents.

2. Burfict is not a clown. If he were a Steeler, you wouldn't even know about 90% of the crap he does. It wouldn't be reported on/tweeted, etc. Don't let the media formulate your opinion for you.

3. ...and we've been winning without those guys. Mixon > Gio and no one thought Eifert would be healthy this year. Price needs to come back, but name a team that isn't dealing with injuries. 

4. Our defense does suck right now. Agreed. They're 23rd in points allowed. That said, we're facing a team that's 27th in points allowed.

5. Our prime-time record has little to do with Dalton. He has a 91.4 rating in his last 12 prime time games, and we're still 4-7-1 in those games. 

6. Marvin Lewis does have a terrible prime-time record. Agreed. To be fair, we're 1-0 this year though, and we played great in that one, so there is some hope.

7. If you want to blame Mike for not firing Marv, etc...fine, but I'm not sure what effect Mike Brown will have on the KC game in particular.

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I'm not making a prediction this week, just as I didn't last week. Mainly because despite this team's good performance this year, I'm aware of the team's history in prime-time and Steelers games. I will say this, though: I'm more confident in our chances against the Chiefs than the Steelers. The Chiefs always have a tendency to start hot and flame out, so they have just as many narratives to overcome as we do.

As tough as it is to stomach another L to the Steelers, our season isn't over. Far from it.