So much for a Week 15 game between the New England Patriots and Cincinnati Bengals begin boring.
The host Bengals have eyes on the future entering this one and the Patriots have thoughts on the playoffs. Everyone else seems focused on where the visitor’s eyes were last weekend in Cleveland.
Here’s the backdrop and some facts for Sunday’s game.
The incident
Let’s get the big one out of the way first. The latest reports over the apparent Patriots taping of the Bengals’ sideline in Cleveland over the weekend say the camera caught about eight minutes of footage of Cincinnati coaches. The Patriots say the football operations have nothing to do with the media arm of the franchise, which made a mistake. Either way, the NFL is conducting an investigation of the matter.
New England’s struggles
The drama has helped to overshadow the fact the Patriots continue to struggle. They’ve lost two in a row to sit at 10-3 and a sense of desperation seems to be settling into place. Three losses isn’t a big deal — but they’ve come against Baltimore, Kansas City and Houston, three AFC playoff heavyweights. We’ll see if the sense of desperation helps at all, but the Patriots haven’t scored more than 22 points in each of their three losses. Tom Brady has hardly completed 60 percent of his passes this season and hasn’t hit the 20-touchdown mark yet.
Playoff and draft implications
Though Bengals players and coaches want to win, they’d benefit from a loss when it comes to draft order. They’re the only one-win team in the NFL but the two-win New York Giants look bad enough to unseat them for the top overall pick. As for the Patriots, they’re second in playoff seeding behind Baltimore yet have lost the aforementioned head-to-head games against the top three teams around them in the standings. Sunday against the Bengals is a must-win.
Next man up
Auden Tate is down, meaning the Bengals need to once again go hunting for help at wideout unless A.J. Green makes a shocking appearance on the field. Tate had been in the middle of a surprising season but now goes to IR right when the offense gets John Ross back. Ideally, Ross will step up alongside Tyler Boyd, but he struggled in his re-debut last week. Facing an elite Patriots defense wasn’t the best time to once again not be at full strength.
Strength vs. strength
Joe Mixon has been on fire lately, scoring a touchdown in three of his last four games. He’s on his way to a 1,000-yard season, which is downright incredible given how it started. The Bengals clearly want to center the offense around him if possible. One problem — the Patriots have a spectacular defense this year, which includes ranking fourth against the run while only permitting an average of 93 rushing yards per game. The unit as a whole allows 12.9 points per game. It’s going to take Mixon’s top performance of the year to overcome the Patriots.
Series history
The Patriots lead this all-time series 16-9 and have won two in a row. They linked up last in 2016, where the Patriots took a win over the Bengals, 35-17. But they haven’t played at Paul Brown Stadium since 2013, where the Bengals got a win, 13-6. Dating back to 2001, the Bengals have mustered two wins over the Patriots in eight attempts.
