Bengals Early Bird Special: Bring On The Cardinals

Good morning Bengals country. It's time to rise and shine. It's Wednesday which means only one thing; it's all down hill from here. If you're having a bad week for some reason don't worry it could be worse. You could be a Colts fan. Just saying, that team is a complete mess without Peyton Manning.

Alright this Saturday the Bengals take on the Arizona Cardinals and it should be a good match up since both teams are vying for a spot in the playoffs. The Cardinals have been surging of late by winning four in a row and six of their last seven. The Bengals on the other hand, have been self destructing in the second half of the season with only two wins in their last six games.

This is a must win for the Bengals. The same goes for the Cardinals, but we don't care if they make it to the playoffs or not. On Sunday the only thing we will care about is seeing the Bengals snap their four-game win streak as Cincinnati looks to claw their way into the postseason.

The best way to term the Cardinals is as slackers. They are team that won't impress anyone with their dominance or play on the field. Instead they do just enough to get by and scrape away with the win.

Kevin Kolb was suppose to be leading them to victory, but instead due to injury, second-year quarterback John Skelton has been getting the snaps under the helm for the Cardinals. And his numbers for the season aren't stellar. He's thrown for 1,345 yards, eight touchdowns, and ten interceptions to go along with the 55.5 percent of his completed passes. How about those numbers? Far from impressive, but it's enough to get by for the time being.

As for their running back Beanie Wells, he has rushed for 148 yards the last three games combined. He has the potential to be an explosive back, but most defenses have been able to contain him instantly minus the St. Louis Rams. As long as that doesn't happen Saturday the Bengals will hopefully be alright.

If the Bengals intend to win on Sunday then they are going to have to improve the amount of pressure that they put on Skelton as well as be able to cover receivers. That seems to be an issue for them lately, but hopefully now that defensive end Carlos Dunlap has played an entire game he will be playing and putting some much needed pressure on the Cardinals offense.

Alright here is a look at what you may have missed or overlooked from Tuesday.

• Cincy Jungle's Unsung Hero of the Week for Week 15 is......
• The Game Ball of the Week goes to.....
• Check out the Bengals offensive and defensive snap count against the St. Louis Rams.
• Unfortunately the Bengals game against the Cardinals has been blacked out. This isn't surprising, but it's still unfortunate for those of us who live in the local area and cannot afford to pay a minimum of $65 for one ticket.
• The Bengals have made up some ground in the latest NFL Power Rankings after their win over the Rams.
• Check out the top five defensive plays by the Bengals from Sunday against the Rams.
• Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green has been nominated for the Pepsi Rookie Player of the Week.
• Cincy Jungle's Week 15 MVP is...... I have a tendency to not tell you unless I get something in return. But this week I'm not sure what I want. How about a Lamborghini?