Originally Posted by
suicidekings
Cincy's best CB, Terrence Newman has been ruled out for today, which leaves the Bengals secondary quite a bit more vulnerable. Adam Jones is the only other truly reliable CB on the field for CIN.
Which Dalton shows up today? He's one of the least consistent starting QBs in the NFL, alternating between huge offensive games, and sputtering failures. The 20 INTs he's thrown this season is by far the most by any QB in the playoffs. When he misses a pass attempt, the ball is overthrown 85% of the time this year, so the short passing game is actually quite dangerous for him. He'd be better off giving AJ Green chances downfield, but last time they played SD, he utilized a ton of short passes.
Cincinnati's tight ends aren't actually very good blockers at all. Even with Bernard in the backfield, when the Bengals attempt to run the ball using 1 or 2 of them in blocking schemes, it just doesn't work very well. However they run these formations a lot and it holds them back. Their rushing game only ranked 20th this year in DVOA.
Overall, Cincinnati's offense ranked 26th in the league in variance, and it's tough to say how they'll look today. Not to say SD doesn't have flaws as well, but the Bengals are definitely not the obvious right side here, like so many people seem to believe...