3 things to know about the Bengals
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| Andy Lyons/AP |
1.) The Bengals have a few tricks up their sleeve: Andy Dalton caught his first receiving touchdown against the Titans in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans (video below, per All Sports News) and while the Patriots are a much better team than the Titans, it's still something to be wary of. I don't think it's likely that the Patriots will see one on Sunday, but it's still something to watch for, especially given the mess that was the Patriots defense on Monday night.
2.) Keep an eye on Giovanni Bernard and A.J. Green: The two guys the Patriots will have to watch without a doubt are A.J. Green. Bernard is the team's leading rusher with 185 yards on the season and 3 rushing touchdowns, but it's not just the rushing - he's also a receiving threat out of the backfield with 148 receiving yards so far this year, but no touchdowns yet. The Patriots had major trouble with Jamaal Charles on Monday, so expect similar trouble with Bernard. As for A.J. Green, he's one of the best receivers in the game right now and he leads the Bengals with 233 yards and a TD. Between Green and Bernard (381 combined receiving yards), they encompass slightly more than half of Andy Dalton's total pasing yards (722 yards so far this season). They'll definitely bear watching this year.
The offensive line will have to watch Carlos Dunlap: Dunlap has 3 sacks in 3 games so far out of 7 total Cincinnati sacks, and he'll surely prove a handful for a shaky Patriots offensive line. The noise factor should work for the Patriots instead of against them this time (unlike Monday), but they still have to bring their A++ game to handle Dunlap, who has 30.5 sacks in his 4-year career and is looking like he could set a personal best this year.
Thoughts? Let me know on Twitter (@C_Frederick1016) or leave a comment. All stats from ESPN.com.
