Cincinnati Bengals: Keys to victory vs. Falcons in Week 4

Players To Watch

Cincinnati: WR Tyler Boyd

The Bengals rely heavily on A.J. Green every single game (for good reason, because he’s great), but an offense which is so heavily reliant on one player to find success is susceptible to bouts of ineffectiveness. Cincinnati does have plenty of young talent coming up the pipeline.

Tyler Boyd is one of the older members of what’s become an increasingly inexperienced group, and after a somewhat underwhelming start to his career he may be ready to break out in a big way. Entering 2018 he had just three games where he eclipsed 75 receiving yards, and his second year saw him be a healthy scratch for games while putting up a startlingly lacking statline for the year (22 catches, 225 yards, two touchdowns, bolstered largely by a big Week 17 game).

In his third year, he appears to have made a jump. His production this year is right there with Green: he leads the team in receiving yardage (249) and 20+ yard plays (6) while being second behind Green in receptions (15), targets (21), touchdown catches (2) and first downs (9).

Against Carolina, he had a career-best effort: six catches, 132 yards and one touchdown, while contributing Cincinnati’s longest offensive play of the season so far (49-yard reception) in the process.

This week will give him the chance to have another strong effort. In the slot, Atlanta will likely be using Brian Poole (most recently seen being lit on fire by Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints’ offense) or maybe Robert Alford (if Poole is moved to safety due to injuries there, Alford may get moved to the slot).

No matter which one Boyd faces, it will be an important matchup to watch. Poole would be a great chance for Boyd to show out with another strong game. Alford could be a challenge, but if Boyd could win that matchup he would prove himself to be an even higher than we might have previously believed while also putting the Falcons at a disadvantage because one of their better defenders is losing his matchup.

Atlanta: DE Vic Beasley

Cincinnati’s offensive line may be better this year than the 2017 version, but it still has some clear weaknesses to exploit. No weakness is bigger than right tackle, where former Giant Bobby Hart has unsurprisingly managed to go from being one of the worst blockers at right tackle in the NFL during his time in New York to being the exact same sort of poor blocker for the Bengals.

Facing him will likely be Vic Beasley, who has his own limitations to worry about. A 15.5-sack 2016 season was a great showing for the young pass rusher, but sacks are the only thing he seems able to add.

Over his career he’s averaged about two tackles per game, and he gets bludgeoned by opposing running games. As a pass rusher, he doesn’t even rack up much pressure unless it results directly in a sack for himself, and he has just 10 sacks across the 33 games he’s played outside of that brilliant 2016.

If he is going to give his sack numbers a bump, a matchup with Hart is about the best thing he could wish for. Beasley may be one-dimensional, but Hart has no positive dimensions. If Beasley can’t beat him, his effectiveness and viability going forward really must be questioned by Atlanta.

He’ll surely be fighting through multiple players (leaving Hart no help is asking for a 60-minute marriage of Dalton and the turf), but if Beasley has an effective game in his winnable matchup it’ll mean less resistance elsewhere for his fellow linemen — linemen who may not have as much pure athletic potential as Beasley, but who can win still-beatable matchups elsewhere on the line.

Prediction

Dalton wasn’t really four-interception bad last week (and his stat-line should be emblematic of that this week), but Matt Ryan’s group is a deeper, better attack at every possible spot on the roster — and they’ll prove it here.

The sheer number of weapons Atlanta has at their disposal will make it impossible for Cincinnati to hold them down. A big knock on them under offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian has been the inability to finish drives, but after rearing its head in Week 1 against Philadelphia the Falcons’ offense has been perfect in the red zone the past couple weeks.

I doubt that perfection will keep up for a third straight week, but they’ll find plenty enough success there to make this the sort of shootout Cincinnati may struggle to keep up in.

Final Score: Atlanta Falcons 36, Cincinnati Bengals 27