The Cincinnati Bengals hope to make it five in a row with the Pittsburgh Steelers in town for the Sunday Night Football primetime affair.
That sentence alone is cause for concern in the Tri-State area given the history between the two teams.
But there are some strange factors that could hurt the Bengals in the matchup, too.
For one, the game has undergone a referee change. A backup crew will officiate the game after Friday’s nationwide air travel shutdown. That crew will call the game in Indianapolis before traveling to Cincinnati to call the primetime night game, making for an odd situation.
There is also some weird history the Bengals will need to overcome in the form of rest disparity. The Bengals are coming off an international game in Madrid,
Spain, while the Steelers are coming off a bye. That scenario has happened just five prior times…and the team coming off the bye has won all five games.
Onto the football itself, Joe Burrow looks on an unstoppable MVP pace. He’s completing 74 percent of his passes with 2,386 yards and 23 touchdowns against six interceptions. Three of his targets, including Mike Gesicki, have scored six or more times.
But the Steelers have also won four games in a row behind some steady play from Aaron Rodgers (60.8 completion percentage, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions). He’s backed by a bruising running game that averages 4.9 yards per carry and Jaylen Warren, who has 100-plus yards in two of his last three against the Bengals.
When these two met in Week 3, the Bengals lost 30-27. But there were some odd happenings on the road for the Bengals, including the weird roughing-the-punter call and one muffed punt that resulted in a lost job. At a minimum, a 10-point swing from an unexpected place. It spoiled 282 yards and three touchdowns from Burrow.
One can presume those errors that haven’t shown up since on special teams won’t do so again now. The Bengals are also at home and, for as much as critics will point at an “easy” schedule for Burrow’s team as of late, the only team the Steelers have beat with a winning record during their streak is the near-.500 Cleveland Browns.
As always, the first comparison point is the quarterback matchup, which favors the Bengals in 90-plus percent of their games this year. The defense needs to limit explosives, but Burrow and the offense should be doing more than enough to pull this one out at home and take control of the AFC North.
Prediction: Bengals 28, Steelers 24
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Final score predictions for Steelers vs. Bengals in Week 10
