Raiders (2-6) at Bengals (3-5) Sunday, Nov. 3 at Paycor Stadium (FieldTurf CORE), 1 p.m. ET, TV: Ch. 19 FOX FOX19 (Cincinnati) Kevin Kugler (PBP), Daryl Johnston (Analyst), Laura Okmin (sideline). Radio: Dan Hoard, Dave Lapham. WEBN-FM (102.7 FM), 700-WLW, ESPN1530.
CINCINNATI — Do the Bengals have enough to make one more run at becoming a legit playoff contender?
We should find out the answer Sunday at Paycor Stadium when the 3-5 Bengals host the 2-6 Raiders in a matchup of underachieving teams.
A win for the Bengals and they can look ahead to Thursday night in Baltimore as another chance to prove they’re not irrelevant in the playoff picture.
A loss and the Bengals will likely start looking at younger players and realize that the playoffs were never in the cards in this lost season. This is a life support game on the 2024 season. A loss and you can safely pull the plug on the season.
Unbelievably, the Bengals are still in search of their first home win, having lost all four regular season game at Paycor and the two preseason games against Tampa Bay and Indianapolis.
The Bengals are coming off an embarrassing 37-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that had fans leaving in droves with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter and dropped Cincinnati to 0-4 at home.
The Bengals are mired in third place in the AFC North with a suddenly-struggling offense that hasn’t reached 20 points in three straight games after a three-game span scoring at least 30.
“(The urgency is) as high as it can be,” said Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. “This is a must-win game. We’re 3-5. You go to 3-6, you basically have to win out. We’ve done it before. I know the players we have. You have to treat it week by week. Any game is winnable. You’ve just got to go and do it.”
The Bengals running game is ranked 28th in the NFL, averaging just 89.8 yards per game. The run game was particularly poor last Sunday as feature backs Chase Brown and Zack Moss combined to gain 43 yards on 17 carries.
“We’ve put ourselves in a bad spot, but it’s not a spot that we can’t get ourselves out of,” said head coach Zac Taylor. “I know that we believe that. We’re not even yet at the halfway point of the season. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity here. We’ve just got to stick together and keep working, find some wins and string it together.”
The Raiders are coming off a 27-20 home loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, a game in which they were 2-for-4 in the red zone and just 1-for-3 in goal-to-go situations.
“It’s really frustrating. That’s obviously something we have to be better at,” said quarterback Gardner Minshew II said. “We’ve been getting down there a few times, the defense put us down there a couple times. We’ve got to be able to get it in the end zone, point blank, period, if we want to be the team we’ve got to be. I have to look at it, figure out what we’ve done well over the last little bit and figure out what’s not working and go from there.”
The Raiders had their chance in the fourth quarter when they had the ball on the three-yard line, trailing just 17-13. But they were stopped behind the line of scrimmage on four straight plays.
The Raiders were flagged for five penalties for 32 yards on Sunday, including a pair which stalled drives.
“You can’t kill yourselves,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said. “We’ve got great opportunities like we did twice in the third quarter to get points on the board. We’ve got to do that. I don’t think you ever try to coach or play the game perfect. You do the best you can, but obviously, they were better in a lot of areas than us.”
The teams are meeting for the first time since Cincinnati’s 26-19 win in the Wild Card round in the 2021 playoffs, snapping a 31-year playoff victory drought for the Bengals.
The Raiders lead the all-time series, 21-13, including 2-1 in postseason. The Bengals have won five of the past six meetings.
Here’s what to look for:
- When the Bengals have the ball:
The Bengals will likely be without three key pieces as receiver Tee Higgins (quad), starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.(knee/fibula) and running back Zack Moss (neck) are all listed as doubtful. The key for the Bengals will be to keep an eye on pass rusher extraordinaire Maxx Crosby. He can wreck games with his rush and can blow up running games as well. He has 6.5 sacks this season and 26 tackles in Vegas’ eight games. Ja’Marr Chase has seven touchdown receptions this season, including one in last week’s loss to the Eagles. Rookie Jermaine Burton figures to get more snaps this week after playing a season-high 24 last week. How much will Joe Burrow trust Burton to be in the right spot if he’s not just heaving the ball downfield? The tight ends – Mike Gesicki and Erick All Jr. could figure prominently in this game if Higgins and Moss are unable to go.
- When the Raiders have the ball:
Can the Bengals contain super rookie tight end Brock Bowers out of Georgia? With eight receptions, Bowers would be one of three players in NFL history – the first tight end – to record 60+ receptions in the first nine games of his rookie season. He would join Puka Nacua (64 in 2023) and Saquon Barkley (62 in 2018). It would also be the eighth time in Raiders history a tight end has recorded 60+ receptions through the first nine games of a single season. With 10 receptions, Bowers would be the second tight end in NFL history to record multiple games of 10+ receptions in his rookie season, joining Jeremy Shockey (2 in 2002). Then there’s QB Gardner Minshew II. With a 75 percent pass completion percentage and at least 25 attempts, Minshew would notch his fourth game of the season with that stat line, tied for the second most of such games in a single season in Raiders history. Minshew would be one of only nine QBs in NFL history to reach four of such games through Week 9 of a single season.
- Bottom Line:
The Bengals are on life support. They haven’t shown true signs of coming out of it so far. They’ve done just barely enough to beat bad teams. They’ve done just enough to lose to good teams. The Bengals might muster up enough plays to keep Vegas from dropping them to 0-5 at Paycor this season. But just barely.
Bengals 21, Raiders 20
