Cincinnati Bengals (2-3) @ Green Bay Packers (2-1-1)
Sunday, October 12, 4:25 PM ET
If you’re the Green Bay Packers, you definitely feel like you should be sitting here at 4-0 coming off the bye week. The Packers made some brutal mistakes against the Cleveland Browns a couple of weeks ago, and then couldn’t play defense against the Dallas Cowboys, ironically.
Coming off of the bye, playing at home, and going up against one of the teams struggling more than most in the NFL right now, you expect the Packers to win big. Vegas is certainly expecting this one to get ugly. The Packers are whopping 14.5-point favorites going up against the Bengals this week, and you can understand why.
The Bengals at least put up a bit of a fight against the Detroit Lions this past week with Ja’Marr Chase getting a couple of big plays, but the Bengals have struggled badly without Joe Burrow in the lineup. Against the Broncos on Monday night in Week 5, they didn’t run a single play in Denver territory after the first drive of the game.
The Packers are going to be looking to bounce back after the disastrous defensive performance against the Cowboys, and what has this Green Bay defense done better than most teams under coordinator Jeff Hafley? Force turnovers.
This could be a long afternoon for the Bengals, who are officially reeling at this point and will be as long as Burrow is sidelined. Will they make a move to give the QB position a boost with someone like Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, or Jameis Winston?
Prediction: Packers win 34-13