Cincinnati Bengals: Players to watch vs. Bills in Week 5
By Kenn Korb
A few key Cincinnati Bengals players to watch in their Week 5 matchup with the Buffalo Bills.
Week 4 brought an end to the unsavory beginning of the Cincinnati Bengals 2017 season, with the Bengals winning in a blowout over their rival Cleveland Browns by a handy 31-7 margin. At 1-3, the playoffs are still highly unlikely, but with the team finally able to put together a cohesive effort for once there’s now still a smidgen of hope remaining that they could recover in time to officially rejoin the playoff hunt.
This week’s opponent — the Buffalo Bills — are one point and a late drop away from being undefeated through four weeks. Suffice it to say, it’s a much taller task to beat them than it was against the still-winless Browns.
To claim victory against Buffalo, many Cincinnati players need to make a significant impact for their team. Here are a few who are particularly important to watch.
3. Darqueze Dennard
To this point in his career, Dennard hasn’t exactly been a stalwart piece of the rotation. His season-best for defensive snap counts is last year’s 334, and that was by far his worst performance (Pro Football Focus Edge overall grade: 47.3). It was a prudent question as to whether he was even worth keeping around leading into this year’s roster cuts.
Luckily he was kept, because apparently he’s somehow become the only cornerback on the roster capable of consistent good play. Though the defense has done well overall, the individual play of their cornerbacks has been surprisingly suspect. Per PFF Edge, three of their six corners are below a 60 in their grading metrics, and only one is above an 80 — Dennard.
Buffalo isn’t exactly a stronghold of wide receiver weaponry right now (and that was before the news on Jordan Matthews missing time due to thumb surgery), but it will still be important to stop them from finding any consistent production.
Tight end Charles Clay and running back LeSean McCoy may be far and away the leaders on the team for targets and receptions, but they can’t do it all themselves; other players are at least going to be given a few looks.
Even for a struggling secondary, anything short of a shutdown effort against these Buffalo receivers will be a failure. Based on the group’s play to this point, it will be Dennard who needs to set the tone for them. He has the physical talent to line up outside or inside, and the size to go against all brands of receivers.
Whoever he’s lined up against needs to be prevented from making plays. If he falls short, a clearly limited Buffalo offense will have the chance to find some offense. With the way their defense has played up to now — and given that Cincinnati’s only found their own offense again bad units — they’ll basically be unstoppable.