NFL Week 8: Bengals vs Colts Madden simulation and game preview

The Bengals have caught a break against the Colts. Earlier in the season, reports surfaced that Luck was aiming to come back from his shoulder injury in time for the Bengals game. However, he had a setback, was shut down and had a cortisone shot in his shoulder. With that said, he won’t be playing on Sunday in Cincinnati and the Bengals will fortunately get to face off against the Luck-less Colts. Jacoby Brissett has looked fairly good in his own right, but he is not the franchise altering talent that Luck is. And, he hasn’t been good enough to help the Colts win more than two games.

We simulated the Bengals vs Colts game in Madden 18 to get an idea of what the game thinks will happen this week at Paul Brown Stadium. You can watch in the video above, or get the breakdown here of how the Madden preview played out.

The Colts receive the ball to start the game and the Bengals’ defense gets off to a roaring start, stuffing Frank Gore behind the line of scrimmage and following that up with a sack of Brissett.

The Bengals receive the ball and their drive also stalls out pretty quickly due to some poor runs on first and second down. The Colts get the ball back and drive down the field. They get in field goal range and a key pass coverage by William Jackson III stops the Colts in their tracks and they are forced to take the field goal.

The Bengals get the ball back and quickly drive back down the field due to a big completion to A.J. Green, but their drive also stalls out before they can reach the endzone, forcing them to take the field goal. After the Bengals score the field goal, both teams exchange three and outs before the Colts are finally able to sustain a drive. With under a minute left, the Colts get to the goal line, but on third down Vontaze Burfict intercepts Brissett and takes it past the fifty yard marker. The Bengals drive down the field thanks to a sideline grab from Green and eventually, Dalton hits Tyler Kroft for the touchdown with almost nothing left on the clock before halftime.

The Bengals receive the ball to start the second half right after scoring to end the first half. Neither team can get much going offensively, exchanging the ball back and forth, but eventually the Bengals’ defense folds and the Colts score on a short touchdown run by Frank Gore.

The Bengals get the ball back and drive down the field. After taking a good amount of time off the clock, they kick a field goal, making the score 13-10.

Unfortunately, the Colts are able to answer right back and drive down the field to kick their own field goal, tying the game up, 13-13.

After the back-to-back field goals, there are several bad drives in a row. Both teams start to struggle on offense again, going through most of the fourth quarter scoreless. However, the Bengals get the ball back with a little more than two minutes left and start to drive down the field. After the two minute warning, Dalton throws a bomb to Green who catches it for the touchdown over a Colts defender.

The Colts get one last chance to score and easily drive down the field into the redzone. With 10 second left on 4^th and 20 Carl Lawson sacks Brissett to secure the Bengals win and Dalton kneels as the Bengals take the win, 20-13.

Do you see the game shaping up this way on Sunday? Leave your predictions and thoughts in the comments.