Intriguing Game- Week Ten
New Orleans Saints at Cincinnati Bengals
Saints: Seven and counting. That’s where their winning streak stands right now at the moment and they are playing football with the utmost confidence. Since their last loss, quite a bit has happened. There’s been a mid-term election, the NBA season started back up along with the NHL and a World Series champion was crowned. This team hasn’t lost a game since week one and they’re coming off their biggest win of the season last week against the Los Angeles Rams who were previously unbeaten and they did what many teams have struggled to in previous years and that’s neutralize and shut down Aaron Donald. One thing that doesn’t get discussed much is the Saints offensive line and how good they are. They give Drew such a clean and spacious pocket to throw from and that’s exactly why you see him have all day to throw the football and when you have a good offensive line up front protecting you and keeping you up, you’ll always succeed. If you aren’t sold on Michael Thomas yet, I highly suggest you watch him last week against the Rams and how he went to work on one of the better secondary’s in the league. Right now, I’d say that the tandem of Brees to Thomas is one of the best quarterback/receiver duos in the league and this is the most in sync I’ve seen Drew with an offensive weapon since his days with Jimmy Graham, remember that? What hurts New Orleans on defense is when they expect to get a turnover each and every game and that’s just how they thrive is getting those takeaways. It’s another week and they’re looking to keep the winning streak going with a win in Cincinnati.
Bengals: I knew they would eventually come back down to reality after the hot start and now look at them. They’re still in second place in the AFC North and if the playoffs started today, they’d be the sixth seed in the AFC as a Wild Card. It’s definitely been another up and down year for them as they got off to the hot start at the beginning of the year, but their last two games, they’ve really struggled. The first one was the heartbreaker against the Steelers in the fourth quarter and they were one stop away from winning that game then Antonio Brown happened. The following week, they go to Kansas City on a Sunday night and get slapped around by the Chiefs and they shouldn’t feel too bad because the Chiefs have been doing that to many teams throughout the season so they’re just another victim on their list. When they last played Tampa Bay, they had a big lead and blew it, but held on for the win. At the beginning of the year, I was saying to myself that they seem to be a different team because they were playing with confidence and some urgency, more than we saw from them all season long in 2017. Now, I’m not sure what to make of them because they’ve gone back to looking like the same old Bengals. Let me just say this: The Bengals will always just be a regular season team and they will never be a postseason team because they aren’t built for January and what I mean by that is they don’t display the mental toughness that most playoff teams display when it matters. To get back on the winning side of things, they will host the Bengals at home.
Saints Player To Watch: Mark Ingram– Alvin Kamara has really come on strong, but let’s not forget about the veteran back. He’s a vital piece of what the Saints offense does and Brees has the luxury of handing it to a pair of durable and capable running backs.
Bengals Player To Watch: Carlos Dunlap– I like this Bengals defensive line and I feel as though they’re underrated. The one thing you must do when playing the Saints is pressure Drew Brees and if you don’t, you’re in for a long day at the office. This is where Carlos needs to be at his best.
Final Analysis: This should be a fun match-up across the league on Sunday. You have two quarterbacks that can really push the football down the field and this is also one of the better receiver match ups in Michael Thomas and A.J. Green. The Saints need to continue to use their smash-mouth identity and run the football. The Bengals can’t make the mistakes the Rams did on Sunday and that’s put too much attention on Kamara that they forget there’s a future Hall of Famer under center at quarterback.
Prediction: Saints 31 Bengals 21
