Bengals at Eagles TNF: Preview and Result

Cincinnati Bengals at Philadelphia Eagles: Thursday Night Football

The Cincinnati Bengals have their backs against the wall in the AFC North playoff race after last week’s dud against the Dallas Cowboys. The Bengals now sit at 7-6 on the year, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers and behind the 9-4 Baltimore Ravens. For Philadelphia, this matchup just brings them one game closer to the end of the season.

Bengals Won’t Overlook Eagles

Cincinnati didn’t do much right last week against Dallas. The Bengals missed assignments, turned the ball over, and were basically sloppy in every phase of the game. Now they don’t have much margin for error if they want to stay in the AFC Wild Card hunt. Philadelphia actually showed up last week and put an end to a eight-game losing streak, so while the Eagles aren’t going to the playoffs, they are playing for jobs. “It’s a quick turnaround, and that’s probably a good thing for us,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis told reporters. “The Eagles are a well-put-together football team that obviously is not happy with where they are in their season. They kind of right the ship a bit (Sunday), and we know we have to go play error free football to win over in Philly on Thursday night.”

Eagles’ Offence Takes Off

Michael Vick and LeSean McCoy won’t suit up for Philadelphia again this week and we may have seen the last of Vick in an Eagles jersey. He was a turnover machine before suffering a concussion that will keep him out of action for the rest of the year. So far, Nick Foles looks more than capable of handling the starting quarterback job. He threw for 381 yards and put together the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter of last week’s game. On the game-winning touchdown to Jason Avant, Foles reportedly constructed his own play when he saw a gap between Tampa Bay’s safeties. “That’s just a quarterback knowing what’s going on and knowing that’s what the defense was giving us,”Jeremy Maclin told reporters. “He saw what they were doing and just came up with something he thought would work against it.”

Prediction

There’s no denying Foles looked good last week, but Cincinnati’s front four will be a major problem for Philadelphia. The Eagles’ offensive line has struggled all year – just ask Vick and McCoy – and Foles will be pressured from the opening snap. The Bengals are always a tough team to get a read on, but if they don’t show up for this one, they don’t deserve to be in the playoff race. Look for Cincinnati to get out to an early lead and lean on defence to put this one away. Final score prediction: Cincinnati 21, Philadelphia 14.