Cincinnati Bengals: Players to watch vs. Steelers in Week 13

A few key Cincinnati Bengals to watch this week as the team tries to get back to .500 with a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Just a couple weeks ago, the Cincinnati Bengals’ season appeared dead at 3-6. After two straight wins however, their hopes for the postseason are miraculously still alive at 5-6.

The postseason is a long ways away though. Cincinnati’s schedule isn’t exactly a cakewalk: their final five games include four opponents currently holding winning records, and the full group holds a .600 winning percentage. Because of that, ESPN’s NFL Football Power Index gives them just a 5.7 percent chance of making the playoffs. To continue the playoff push, Cincinnati will again face their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here are some of the Bengals who must perform well for Cincinnati to pull the upset and come away victorious.

3. Jordan Evans

The rookie hasn’t had much chance to make an impact this year, but that could be changing due to yet another issue above him on the depth chart. This year, we’ve already seen Vontaze Burfict miss three games due to suspension, and Vincent Rey and Kevin Minter have missed games due to injury. Rey may miss another week and you can likely add Nick Vigil to that list now as well due to an ankle problem.

With all the flux around him, Evans got his biggest action of the year against Cleveland. In his 38 snaps he wasn’t too impressive, but even with a lacking performance he showed some ability in at least one facet: run defense.

Having Evans on the field more could turn out to be an upgrade because of that. Cincinnati has been headstrong about keeping Vigil playing a major role this year despite him being a consistent target. Not only does he not excel anywhere, but he is a negative in every aspect of his game. Per Pro Football Focus Edge, Vigil is replacement level in run defense (32.7), coverage (44.1) and pass rushing (52.3). Evans is still a net negative (44.1 PFF overall grade), but his 77.1 run defense grade shows he can at least provide some help against the Steelers’ ground game.

This will be especially important with the Steelers having Le’Veon Bell in the lineup. Pittsburgh may sit as just the No. 11 in Rush Offense DVOA, but despite a slow start to 2017 Bell leads the NFL in rushing yards (981) and effective yards (1,101) and is fifth in DYAR.

If Cincinnati cannot slow Bell, that dangerous Pittsburgh offense will be able to find balance and attack a Cincinnati secondary which has struggled mightily at times to perform at the level of their front-seven counterparts. Evans has a tall task ahead of him, but he has a chance to make a major difference for his team if he can prevent the elusive Bell from breaking away on his trademark big plays.