Thursday Night Football see's the Cincinnati Bengals head to Philadelphia to face the Eagles. The Bengals need a win to keep themselves in the playoff race. They are level with the Steelers at 7-6 and the likely hood is one of them will enter the playoffs as the AFC's sixth seed. Philadelphia have had a bad year and are out of the playoffs already but the players will be on a high after picking up a good win in Tampa Bay on Sunday.
The Bengals have had a very up and down year. They started well, winning three of their first four games. They followed that 3-1 start with four straight defeats and just when they looked to be done for the year, they went on a four game winning streak. That got them to 7-5 and right back in the playoff hunt. They suffered a last gasp defeat to the Cowboys on Sunday to stand at 7-6 as things stand.
The main reason for the success has been the form of receiver, AJ Green. Green is an elite receiver and has been having a great year. He has caught 79 passes for 1151 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 10 touchdown catches leads the NFL. Green has linked up perfectly with quarterback, Andy Dalton. Both were drafted last year and they have developed a great understanding and the Bengals are reaping the rewards. I liked Dalton in college and personally believe he was underrated. Dalton was the fifth quarterback to be taken in the 2011 draft, coming behind Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. I would be fairly confident in saying that Andy Dalton will go on to have a better NFL career than any of those.
Another reason for the success, particularly the recent four game winning streak, has been the form of BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Green-Ellis has 974 rushing yards this season and should pass 1000 yards for the season in tonight's game. He started off slowly but has picked up in recent weeks with four straight games of at least 100 yards from scrimmage. The Bengals are no slouches on defense either and have restricted their opponents to less than twenty points on six occasions. They are a franchise on the up and as their young players continue to improve, they should be competing in the AFC for the next few years.
As I've already said the Eagles have been having a bad year. It's difficult to put a finger on what has gone wrong but it has been an absolute disgrace of a season. It began ok with a 3-1 start but two tight losses before the bye week left the Eagles at 3-3. I wasn't happy with the loss against the Lions but other than, we were more or less where I expected us to be. I was particularly pleased with the wins over the Ravens and the Giants. The biggest problem was our offense. We were averaging just 17 points per game which is nowhere near good enough.
Andy Reid had a look at things on the bye week and in his wisdom decided that the defensive coordinator, Juan Castillo, was the problem and he would have to go. Personally, I would have said the defense was the only thing that was working. They were conceding points late in the game but I would put that down to tiredness as they were spending 35-40 minutes per game on the field due to the failures of the incompetent offense. Up to that point the defense was conceding 20.83 points per game. In the seven games since then we have conceded at least 21 points in every game. In those seven game we are conceding an average of 30.86 points per game. Personally I would say that's enough evidence to show that Andy Reid doesn't have a clue what he's doing.
The offense have turned a bit of a corner but even that has nothing to do with Andy Reid. He was forced to change things when Michael Vick got injured and his replacement, Nick Foles has began to get a bit more out of the offense. He had a slow start but has been improving gradually and as far as I'm concerned, he's the future of the Philadelphia Eagles. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of Andy Reid and believe we are at the end of his time in Philadelphia. His position is untenable and it is time for the franchise to go in a different direction. I fully believe he will leave once the season is over and I look forward to finding out who the new head coach will be.
The match ups in this game are extremely tight. The teams are similarly linked in every category and there are no obvious areas were either side will have an advantage. The biggest difference between these sides has been the turnover differential. The Bengals are sitting at 0, with 21 takeaways and 21 giveaways. The Eagles however are -19, with 29 giveaways and just 10 takeaways. It underlines the importance of taking care of the football in the NFL and those turnovers are the difference in a potential playoff team and an early draft pick.
Prediction - I actually believe the Eagles will win this one. Andy Reid is good at two things, failure and winning games when you are playing for nothing other than draft picks.
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