Chiefs at Bengals, Week 13: OPEN THREAD

Laddie Morse

Another day another dollar… another week another top defense to fight against… oh wait one second. That’s not the case this week. Sportsnaut.com ranks the top 20 defenses each week of the season, and as it progresses, here’s their top 20:

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While you may notice that K.C. shows up at #18, the Bengals defense is nowhere to be seen. Next week, the Chiefs will go up against the Broncos vaunted defense, then again their offense is leaving many things to be desired. Although, sportsnaut.com has the Chiefs at #18, lineups.com lists the Bengals D at #11.

If you go by points allowed per game, the Bengals D comes in at #13 and the Chiefs D at #16.

Either/any way you look at it, the Defenses for the Bengals and the Chiefs will not likely be the difference in this game. Getting stops, plus takeaways and giveaways, can make a difference though. Given that Joe Burrow was intercepted four times last week against the Steelers, the Bengals are +1 in the takeaway/giveaway department, while K.C. is at -1. Not really much of a difference.

Elephant in the Room

The elephant in the room for these two teams is that the Bengals beat the Chiefs twice last year and in a sense, “Own the Chiefs.” Or so the Cincinnatians spirits’ bleed. However, until K.C. can break that spell, the Bengals will have bragging rights in the AFC and that goes a long way since the last time these two teams met the Bengals shocked the Chiefs in Arrowhead and while the Chiefs were sent packing, the Bengals were packing for their Super Bowl trip.

I’m not a fan of giving the other team any bulletin board material to paste upon their pretty walls. Chiefs Safety, Justin Reid, said this week that, “I’m going to light up the Bengals” and some media types have jumped on his statement:

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When referring to WR Tee Higgins (who’s name he couldn’t recall), Reid says, “I’m going to lock him down.”

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Then again, Reid is the guy who went on Good Morning Football prior to the season beginning and said “The Chiefs are going to score 100 points in a game.” However, the Bengals have taken the words of Justin Reid to heart and Hayden Hurst came out and said, “I feel like I’m the last person you wanna talk s—t about.” WR Ja’Marr Chase, who is supposed to return to action this week, said in response to Reid’s comments: “I don’t think he’s watching the film at all. I don’t think he knows his personnel.” While he may mean that, it also sounds like there’s some animus behind those words.

The Bengals Win if…

The Bengals should be able to pull down a victory over the Chiefs if they can rush three and use 8 men to cover the back end. That’s what they did in the second half of their victory in January, sending them to the Super Bowl. That’s not likely to happen this year so… the Bengals win if they can be patient, like Mahomes has learned to be, and “matriculate” the ball down the field.

Chiefs Changing Faces

It appears many of the offseason moves K.C. has made were done with the intent of beating the Bengals, if they faced them again… and… here we are. Those moves include:

• Improving the front seven – by releasing Anthony Hitchens and installing Nick Bolton as the permanent ILB, the front seven has gotten a huge lift in 2022. Getting regular contributions from the ultra-athletic LB Willie has also helped. Adding DE George Karlaftis through the draft has been a boon for helping to put pressure on opposing QBs. The return of DE Frank Clark to his 2019 levels of play has helped. The addition of DE Carlos Dunlap has helped. The addition of Leo Chenal has helped, if not to a lesser degree.

• Improving the back end of the Defense – by releasing Daniel Sorensen and drafting Trent McDuffie (75.7 – PFF) plus the re-ascendance of L’Jarius Sneed (86.5 – PFF) has made the Chiefs secondary one of the better secondaries in the NFL. Signing of Justin Reid to replace Tyrann Mathieu has helped, and it’s been noted that Reid is more athletic (than Mathieu), plus the play of Bryan Cook has helped.

• trading away Tyreek Hill – has been a bigger help that previously thought. The trade allowed the Chiefs to get a 1st Round pick in 2022 (McDuffie), a 2nd Rounder in 2022 (WR, Skyy Moore), and a 4th Rounder in 2022 (part of the McDuffie trade), plus K.C. got picks, in the 2023 Draft, in the 4th Round and the 6th Round from Miami). Since Patrick Mahomes could no longer lean on the speed of Tyreek Hill to make plays in crunch time, he has had to learn, throughout the season, how to adjust his game, and by so doing, has helped the team immeasurably.

Kansas City Wins If…

If K.C. can get consistent pressure on QB Joe Burrow, that will go a long way towards winning this one. Consequently, expect to see a lot of short and quick passing by the Bengals early on. Only two QBs in the NFL have been sacked more than Burrow, so getting pressure will be huge, but should be doable. On the flip side, the K.C. pass rush has already gotten 3 more sacks in 2022 than it dd all of last season (34-to-31) and are currently 4th in the NFL in Sacks. If the Chiefs defense can keep the Bengals O from going long and picking up a quick and easy TD, that will go a long way towards helping K.C.’s cause. Turning the Bengals offense into a one trick pony by stopping their running game, will be job one and will also go a long way towards winning this one.

Matt McMullen’s Preview

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QB Comparison

There are some out there that think Joe Burrow is as good (if not better) at quarterbacking than Patrick Mahomes. What a load of Bull Pucky. While that sounds like folly to me, there’s also been comparisons of these two matching-up like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Mahomes rightly says that this comparison is best left to the end of their careers, plus the one-on-one comparison should be cleared up right here, right now:

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Referee Assignment

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At first glance it looks like John Hussey and his crew allow the players to play the game without getting in the way too much. Then, I found this:

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At least Hussey’s crew has the second least amount of yards lost because of penalties. His crew also has the fourth lowest number of total flags dropped. Hallelujah!

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Cincinnati Game Time Weather

The game begins at 3:25 PM CT and since Bengals — Paycor — Stadium is an open air stadium, here’s the weather report for the afternoon.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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