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

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DENVER, CO – NOVEMBER 19: Devontae Booker #23 of the Denver Broncos tries to break free from Dre Kirkpatrick #27 of the Cincinnati Bengals at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on November 19, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

1. Dre Kirkpatrick

Coming into the year, much was expected of Kirkpatrick. Though he’s been massively inconsistent in his career, he was just handed a huge new contract in the offseason to be Cincinnati’s No. 1 cornerback for the next handful of season.

The early returns on the investment haven’t been too promising. For much of the year he’s graded out as one of the NFL’s worst cornerbacks (per Pro Football Focus Edge). He has been the prime example of Cincinnati defensive backs failing to come away with stops and turnovers despite plenty of pressure from the front four. Even when he’s done well it still seems like he’s still managed to mess up regardless (like getting tackled at the end of

There’s still opportunity for him to salvage his year, however. His play has picked up in the Bengals’ past two wins, and while that hasn’t exactly been against great competition (Denver is No. 27 in Pass Offense DVOA; Cleveland is No. 32), a step forward at all is a positive sign to grasp onto.

He’ll need a much better showing than what we saw last time versus Pittsburgh. From that game the highlight-package stiff-arm he took from Bell was what everyone will remember, but he was beaten early and often in non highlight-reel plays.

That can’t happen again for Cincinnati to win. Kirkpatrick will be seeing plenty of time against Antonio Brown; stopping him is pretty much impossible (go back and watch the highlights of Steelers-Packers), but sticking to him and forcing him to be inhuman to make those plays reduces the margin of error for not only Brown but his quarterback — a quarterback who has definitely played much better at home than on the road.

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Having the players in the Cincinnati front seven slowing Bell and pressuring Roethlisberger will be a major key to a Bengals upset. As he reminded us all last week though, Brown is the sort of talent who can change a game by himself; another great performance from him could undo even the best efforts elsewhere by the Bengals.

It will be Kirkpatrick’s job to prevent that from happening.

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