Guess who was inundated with every kind of hat ad imaginable all week long? This guy, that’s who. (the personal sacrifices I make for this site, smgdh) Maybe it’s just the football yakkers doing their thing to keep interest up (which is completely unnecessary during the Final Eight Round, by the way) but each “dog” playing this weekend has a legit shot at a win. (I feel there’s no real dog in the Bills/Chiefs game tho)

To The Game!

Bengals/Titans:

-Vrabel mentioned that he wanted to see how King Henry reacted to contact during practice. After sending three practice squadders to the hospital, coach announced that Derrick was ‘ready to go!’.

-Entering Belichick/Reid Territory? Vrabel is 8-0 when his team has had rest.

-Back in 2019 the Bengals were the league’s worst vs the run. After overhauling the D (there are only 2 holdovers from that team) they now sit at 13th. Turning over that many players while assembling that O unit indicates that despite everything you might imagine about about Cincy’s head office, they’ve done incredible work/gotten lucky.

-However! Their o-line features three starters with bottom 10 PFF grades if you’re into that sort of thing. So… quick passes it is. (with the occasional long throw to Chase)

-Speaking of, the fella is 27(!) for 507(!) and 3 TD’s over his last three games. The Titans are middle of the pack DVOA-wise in defending the other team’s #1 wr.

-One thing you can say about the Titans OC Downing is that he is disciplined/stubborn with respect to his commitment to the running game. Don’t expect him to change course if they get down by two scores.

-I mean, that almost certainly plays into the Titans game plan, right? The last thing the Bengals should do is go the quick score route and force their iffy D back onto the field for long stretches at a time-that’ll no doubt catch up to them towards the end of the game.

-Also, Burrow’s tendency to take punishment/sacks doesn’t mesh well with a Titans front four that has dumped the opposing qb on the ground the 2nd-most times this year.

It’s time to make those fingers dance.