Steelers at Bengals

The AFC Central is usually one of, if not the strongest, conference in the NFL. It again sends multiple teams to the playoffs and they meet this Saturday in Cincinnati. Bengals put together a strong season but they are missing QB Dalton. Their passing game took a hit without him in the last few games. See Yards Passing chart below, last 4 games.

Bengals' replacement QB McCarron lost to Steelers 4 games back in an outing where he threw 2 INTs. Since then he's been INT free and won a couple of games. So don't look for a repeat of the last outcome.

While the computer sees this as a clear win for Bengals, keep in mind it is only looking at team performance data, not player data. It doesn't care who's throwing the ball. It's using full season data and includes some big games by Dalton. So don't take the computer prediction too seriously.

Odds makers are favoring the Steelers by 3 due to the loss of the Bengal starter. But the Steelers have weakness on the D side of the passing game. I'll go out on a limb and say Bengals win this game, but unlike our computer, I wouldn't give 8.5 points.

Bill Sanders for BudGoodeSports.com
dr.bill@wrsanders.com

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