Cincinnati Bengals: Players to watch vs. Bears in Week 14

Some important Cincinnati Bengals to watch as the team attempts to keep their slim playoff dreams alive against the Chicago Bears.

The Cincinnati Bengals had a prime opportunity last week to get themselves to .500 in a game against their hated rivals from Pittsburgh. With a great start and a three-score lead, it seemed like the Bengals may actually be able to make it happen. Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case when those teams meet, Cincinnati wasn’t able to keep up those efforts and eventually lost in a brutally ugly contest.

With the loss Cincinnati now sits at 5-7, leaving already slim playoff hopes on life support. The team is left with a relatively tough closing stretch that includes three other teams fighting for playoff berths and/or positioning. Their best remaining chance for a victory is this week, against a Bears team that has long accepted its fate to miss the postseason once again.

Here are some Cincinnati players to watch in the contest; their play in this contest should be major indicators as to how the team fares this weekend.

3. Kevin Minter

The Cincinnati defense has been the engine, backbone, and spirit of all the positive results Cincinnati has actually managed to come across in a disappointing season. The unit has been doing this despite plenty of injuries hampering them along the way, but we may be at a critical mass for the group.

The back seven could be missing up to five starters and key contributors this week, and it doesn’t get worse than at the linebacker spot. This group has been particularly snakebitten in 2017, with every starter missing at least one game so far due to injury or suspension already.

This week may see more starters missing time. Vontaze Burfict went into concussion protocol after that suspension-inducing hit by JuJu Smith-Schuster; he could be out. Nick Vigil missed last week and could be out again. Even the depth pieces aren’t exempt. Vincent Rey has been out since Week 11, and could be unavailable again.

This is where Minter comes in. He was brought in to be an underrated piece in the middle, but injuries removed him from action for a month in the middle of the year. He’s participated in the past four games however, and could all of a sudden be the senior member of the active linebackers this weekend. Beyond him, there might only be rookies Jordan Evans (a culprit on that Le’veon Bell touchdown catch-and-run along the sideline) and Hardy Nickerson (he of 16 career snaps).

Even if some of the injured linebackers are able to play, they won’t all be in there so Minter still will likely play a major role regardless. He must play well against a team that’s one-dimensional but quite good in that dimension. A Chicago offense which is No. 28 in Football Outsiders’ Offensive DVOA and No. 30 in Pass Offense DVOA is actually 16th in Rush Offense DVOA. They have two quality running options in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen, and pair that with a mobile quarterback in rookie Mitchell Trubisky.

The ground game will be important to stop, and Minter will be at the center of it.