BENGALS @ TEXANS
After an eventful Week 11 we have reached an important period in the NFL fixture with only 5 games remaining for the year! Week 12 brings us a pretty underrated matchup between the (6-3-1) Cincinnati Bengals and the (5-5) Houston Texans. Last week saw the Bengals come back into the form we expected with a solid 17 point win over the New Orleans Saints. Week 12 also saw the Texans take care of the (6-3) Cleveland Browns in what has ended up being quite the upset with a 23-7 win on the road.
The Bengals have been fairly inconsistent so far this season, dealing with plenty of injuries on both sides of the ball and yet still sit (6-3-1) and are right in the hunt for a 4th playoff berth. With Giovanni Bernard still questionable with injury the Bengals have been heavily reliant on back up running back Jeremy Hill who has been superb in Bernard's absence. Coming off 152 rushing yards against the saints, Hill has gone for 361 yards with 2 tds the past 3 weeks. Bernard is expected back this week but it gives the Bengals a real double threat in the backfield to an already explosive offense. Wide Receiver A.J Green (pictured right) was back to his normal self last week after starting back slow from a stint on the sidelines due to injury, notching up 127 yards and a TD.
Houston have gone through a QB change in recent weeks with Ryan Fitzpatrick losing his starting job to Ryan Mallett. Houston looked better with Mallett under
centre against the Browns and the end result definitely reflected that. Much of the Texans offense is run through star Running Back Arian Foster who in a 5 week period went for 575 rushing yards with 6 TD's. Troubled by injury in Week 11, back up running back Alfred Blue took off where Foster left with 156 yards of rushing offense himself. Where there is offense, there is defense, and when you are talking J.J Watt there is both. 2 offensive TD's, 44 tackles, 9.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 1 interception to top it off makes for a nice stat sheet for the number 1 defensive player in the league.
This game will be closer than people think. The Bengals should win, they have a pretty potent offense and their defense, although not fantastic through 11 weeks, has the potential to be pretty stout, much of what depends on the outcome is how Andy Dalton deals with constant pass rush from the Texans front 7. If Dalton can limit turnovers and get in a rhythm with A.J. Green early it will be hard for the Texans to get the W.
CINCINNATI by 10.
Tim Fernando