For much of this season, the Cincinnati Bengals have been extremely inconsistent, but as of recently, they have looked like the AFC Champion Bengals again. Ever since the disastrous Monday Night Football game vs. the Browns, the Bengals have been on a three-game win streak. Now with a 7-4 record, the Bengals are in deep contention for a wild card spot and have a chance at winning their division. This Sunday will be their toughest test yet, going against the first-place Kansas City Chiefs. Last year, the Bengals went 2-0 against the Chiefs; however, it wasn’t easy as each game required a massive second-half comeback and a game-winning field goal. If the Bengals want to beat the Chiefs and put themselves in contention for first place in the AFC, they will need to do many things right with very few mistakes. Here are three strategies the Bengals will need to focus on to come out victorious.
1. Be aggressive from the first snap.
When playing the Chiefs, it’s less about beating them for all four quarters, and more about keeping up with them for all four quarters. In Joe Burrow’s last two battles with Patrick Mahomes, Burrow and the offense had slow starts in the first half. While the Bengals did come back in the second halves, and they could do it again, this is very unlikely. After four weeks of star receiver Jamarr Chase’s absence, he is set to return at the best time possible. If the Bengals want to keep up with the Chiefs, they will need to score a lot of points, and this won’t happen by running the ball, especially if Joe Mixon is out. Zac Taylor needs to make the game plan pass-heavy with Chase in mind, and take as many deep shots as possible to put points on the board. Whether it means going for it on fourth down multiple times, or abandoning the run game completely, the Bengals need to play high-risk, high-reward football.
2. Lock down the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce.
This is easier said than done. Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, as usual, has been phenomenal and has been off the charts recently, scoring five touchdowns in the past three weeks. In the offseason, the Chiefs’ all-pro wide receiver, Tyreek Hill was traded to the Dolphins. Now that the Chiefs don’t have Hill, they have been focusing on Kelce. No matter what the Bengals do, it will be difficult to stop Kelce but the Bengals have a much greater chance of locking him down than last year with Hill gone. The focus for the Bengals’ defense is to limit Kelce as much as they can. Though this will be their main strategy, they shouldn’t underestimate the Chiefs’ wide receivers. Led by Juju Smith-Schuster, the Chiefs’ receivers can make big plays at big moments in the game. Zac Taylor will have to figure out the right balance of locking down Travis Kelce while preventing big plays from the Chiefs’ wideouts.
3. Force turnovers.
Ultimately, the Bengals’ chance at a win in this game comes down to the turnover battle. It is very difficult to force the MVP favorite Mahomes to commit turnovers, but it can happen. Most of the time Mahomes seems like a magician but he has shown that even he can turn into a human now and then. Just look at the second half of last year’s AFC Championship game. Mahomes went from playing amazingly with a QBR of 149.9 to playing like a bottom 5 QB in the NFL with a QBR of 34.0. That gap is crazy, and shows that the Bengals have the potential to stop Mahomes. It doesn’t help that the Bengals lost their best cornerback, Chidobe Awuzie, to a torn ACL. The Bengals’ defense will need to step up in the biggest moment of a game that is destined to be a nail biter. They’ve shown they can do it in last year’s stunning wins against the Chiefs, and they can definitely do it again.
Third Down With Devin 