To close the book on Week 4 we are getting the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers facing off on Monday Night Football. What was once the matchup that decided who would claim the title of the AFC North, now comes with both teams trying to capture their first win of the 2019 NFL season. The names that we are familiar with are mostly gone, especially with Ben Roethlisberger out with an injury.
The Steelers were not supposed to be at the bottom of their division. Even though Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are gone, Pittsburgh was thought to have undergone addition by subtraction this offseason. However, they suffered defeats in all of their first three games and the replacements for the departed stars (James Conner and Juju Smith-Schuster) have not been able to replace their production so far. Losing Roethlisberger is likely attributing to that but excuses aren’t going to make the fan base happy–or keep Mike Tomlin off the hot seat. They’ve doubled-down on figuring things out this year when they traded away their 2020 first-round pick to the Miami Dolphins for a second-year defensive back, Minkah Fitzpatrick. Finishing at the bottom of the standings would be an even worse outcome for this franchise. On the other side of the field will be the Bengals. They are in year one of the post-Marvin Lewis era and they chose Zac Taylor (from the famed Sean McVay coaching tree) to lead the way. Andy Dalton is likely on his last leg as the franchise quarterback and even though A.J. Green has yet to take the field the team is still expecting him to orchestrate an average moderate offense. Joe Mixon’s slow start to the season hasn’t helped any and as we saw with McVay and his disciples, establishing the run is priority number one.
During tonight’s game, both teams will be looking to turn their season’s around. With the vast majority of teams hovering around 2-2 the winner won’t be too far out of things at 1-3. However, falling to 0-4 all but assures three’s no chance at making the postseason. For some Bengals fans, the latter outcome might be the favored one as it gives them a better chance at drafting Dalton’s eventual successor if they get a higher pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Names like Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Jake Fromm, Joe Burrows, and Jacob Eason are likely to be among the potential quarterbacks selected in the first round.
Pittsburgh will be defending their home field and this could be a good opportunity for the Steelers defense to get their act together. After acquiring Fitzpatrick they now have nine defensive players that were drafted in the first round on their roster. T.J. Watt has been one of the bright spots to date but they are going to need more from the other two levels if they want any chance at getting back into the playoffs this year. The Bengals offense hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in Taylor’s first season with the team so what better way to get back on track than Monday Night Football. All eyes will be on this game and a good to great performance tonight can completely change the narrative surrounding this team.
PREDICTION: Steelers 28 , Bengals 13
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