New England Patriots
The Bengals’ season has been derailed due to Joe Burrow’s injury and other reasons, but the Patriots should know from last year’s matchup that anything can happen on any given Sunday.
The Patriots have another golden opportunity ahead of them to extend their win streak in Week 12.
For the sixth time in seven weeks, the Patriots will take on a team with a losing record when they face the 3-7 Bengals on Sunday. Cincinnati’s season was quickly derailed by Joe Burrow’s turf toe injury in Week 2, but there have also been a few other contributing factors for the Bengals’ poor record.
Still, anything can happen on any given Sunday. Just look at the last meeting between these two teams, when the Patriots defeated the Bengals in the first game of the Jerod Mayo era in one of the NFL’s biggest upsets last season.
So, as the Patriots look to become the NFL’s first 10-win team this season, here are five things to know about the team that’ll try to prevent that.
They may be without their quarterback, but Joe Burrow’s latest replacement has been solid.
The news broke Saturday morning that Burrow won’t play despite the effort he made to return in practice this week, participating in full at Wednesday and Thursday’s practices before being ruled out.
Obviously, the Bengals would prefer having the quarterback who led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns under center on Sunday. But Joe Flacco has provided some stability at the position for them since the Bengals traded for him from the Browns in October.
Flacco has thrown for 1,453 yards, 12 touchdowns, and three interceptions with a 96.2 passer rating over five games with the Bengals. Cincinnati is 1-4 with Flacco as its starter, but he had a passer rating of over 100 in two of those losses. In the Week 9 loss to the Bears, Flacco threw for 470 yards and four touchdowns.
So, the Bengals’ aerial attack can still be explosive thanks to Flacco’s ability to push the ball down the field. Flacco’s been one of the NFL’s best deep throwers since he joined the Bengals as well, completing 10 of 21 passes on throws of at least 20 yards for 309 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception.
But Flacco’s ability to push the ball down the field might be hampered on Sunday …
Joe Flacco will be without one of the game’s top wide receivers. Who might step up?
Not only will the Patriots avoid going up against Burrow, but they’ll also miss out on facing Ja’Marr Chase. The Bengals’ star wide receiver was suspended for one game due to spitting at Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey in last week’s loss.
Chase has been one of the game’s few best receivers since he was drafted in 2021. As Burrow led the league in passing last year, Chase won the receiving triple crown as he led the league in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708), and receiving touchdowns (17).
Even with Burrow sidelined for most of this season, Chase has been productive. He leads the league in receptions (79) and is third in receiving yards (861), adding five receiving touchdowns.
Suffice it to say, the Patriots avoided a potential problem on Sunday. But the Bengals have another talented receiver in Tee Higgins. Higgins actually has more receiving touchdowns (seven) this year than Chase.
Higgins had a pretty strong showing the last time he went up against the Patriots. He had eight receptions for 128 yards and a touchdown in a Bengals win over the Patriots in December 2022. Granted, it was three years ago, but that game came after a four-game stretch where Higgins had 26 receptions for 371 yards and two touchdowns with Chase sidelined. So, Higgins can get it done without playing next to Chase.
Beyond Higgins, tight end Noah Fant has been a bit productive with Flacco, recording two touchdowns in five games. Former Patriots tight end Mike Gesicki is also set to return from injured reserve for the Bengals this week. He had 665 receiving yards last season.
Their offensive line is among the league’s worst.
While the Bengals have the playmaking to be one of the league’s most explosive teams, they’re nowhere near as good in the trenches.
The Bengals’ offensive line ranks among the worst in the league in several metrics. Even though they’re tied for 16th in sacks allowed per game (2.3), the Bengals are 29th in pass-block win rate (55 percent) and 21st in run-block win rate (71 percent). Pro Football Focus ranked Cincinnati’s offensive line 28th in the league after giving up 15 pressures on 41 dropbacks last week.
Ben Baldwin’s pass protection composite ranking, meanwhile, has the Bengals’ offensive line as the second-worst in the league, with the Browns being the only team with lesser pass protection.
The Patriots could certainly use the opportunity to go up against a lesser offensive line. Defensive tackle Milton Williams is set to miss at least the next four games, and the Patriots have been inconsistent in generating pressure this year. But New England was able to feast off Cleveland’s bad offensive line in Week 8, generating 26 pressures on 39 dropbacks in that game.
Their defense is historically bad.
For as bad as the Bengals’ offensive line is, their defense is even worse.
The Bengals are last in both yards and points allowed per game this season. In fact, they’re the only team that’s giving up more than 400 yards per game (418.2), as they also allow 33.4 points per game.
But Cincinnati’s defense is even worse beyond those two stats. The Bengals’ defense is the worst ever tracked by DVOA, which goes back to 1978, per FTN Fantasy’s Aaron Schatz. DVOA is a metric that measures performances by comparing each play’s success against the league average.
Of course, you could likely tell the Bengals’ defense is bad just from the fact that they’ve lost two games recently in which they’ve scored at least 38 points. So, Drake Maye and the Patriots’ offense are in a good spot entering Sunday’s game.
They’ll also be without their top defensive player.
Making matters worse for the Bengals’ defense, edge rusher Trey Hendrickson will miss another game due to a hip injury. Hendrickson, who has four sacks this season, led the NFL in sacks last year (17.5) and logged 57 sacks over the last four seasons.
Even with Hendrickson playing seven games this season, the Bengals’ pass rush has been bad. They rank last in pass-rush win rate, failing to generate much pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
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