NFL Week 9 Primer: Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars stats and facts

The Bengals are sitting at 3-4 about to take on the Jaguars. If this game were played in the last few years, you’d think it would be an easy win for the Bengals. This year? Not so much.

The Bengals struggled last week against the 2-6 Colts, but thanks to some late game heroics by Carlos Dunlap, the home team Bengals were able to escape with a win. The Bengals have a three game road trip in front of them that could easily make or break their season. The Jaguars are currently sitting in the final AFC Wild Card spot, and then they play the Broncos and Titans who have looked lousy the past few weeks that they’ve played.

The Jaguars really are a throwback team. Their defense is one of the best in the league (if not the best). They have two games with 10 sacks this season, which isn’t good news for the Bengals and their poor offensive line. The Jaguars have also been very committed to the run game. Most of their rushing attack comes from rookie running back Leonard Fournette. Fournette has 596 yards and 130 carries already this season and didn’t even play in the Jaguars’ last game due to injury. He will be back this week though and the Jaguars will run it until they can’t run it anymore, and even then they will still try to run it a few times. On top of that, the Jaguars are coming off their bye week, so they’ll be rested and ready to go with an extra day of practice this week.

The Bengals will have to keep Andy Dalton upright by opening a few holes for Joe Mixon this week. The Jaguars’ one weakness seems to be their run defense, which ranks last in the league allowing 138.6 yards per game.

A win this week would be huge for the Bengals’ hopes this season, but it won’t be an easy one.

Here’s what to know about the Bengals vs Jaguars Week 9 matchup:

Game: Cincinnati Bengals (3-4) at Jacksonville Jaguars (4-3)

Date/Time: Sunday, November 5th, 2017 1:00 p.m. EST

Location: Ever Bank Field, Jacksonville, Florida

Series Leader: Jaguars lead series 11-9

Streak: Bengals have won the last four games

Coaches vs Opponent: Marvin Lewis (4-1), Doug Marrone (0-1)

TV Broadcast: CBS broadcast with Andrew Catalon (play-by-play) and James Lofton (analyst). The game will air in the Bengals home market on WKRC-TV (Channel 12) in Cincinnati, WHIO-TV (Channel 7) in Dayton and on WKYT-TV (Channel 27) in Lexington, Ky.

Radio Broadcast: Coverage on the Bengals Radio Network, led by Cincinnati flagship stations WLW-AM (700), WCKY-AM (ESPN 1530; all sports) and WEBN-FM (102.7). Broadcasters are Dan Hoard (play-by-play) and Dave Lapham (analyst). The game will also be aired to a national audience on the Westwood One radio network. Broadcasters are John Sadak (play-by-play) and Ross Tucker (analyst).

Jaguars SB Nation: Big Cat Country

Weather: High 70’s; Clear throughout the day [NFL Weather]

Odds: The Bengals open as a 3.5-point underdog. [Vegas Insider]

Uniforms: Black jersey with black pants; The Bengals are 15-11-1 in that combination since 2004.

Cincinnati Bengals

• Dalton passed for two touchdowns without an interception for a 108.8 passer rating last week. He has over 120 passer rating in two of his past three games on road. Dalton aims for his fourth meeting with the Jaguars in row with over two touchdown passes.
• Mixon had a career-high 91 receiving yards in Week 8. He is one of only two rookies (Kareem Hunt) with over 250 rushing yards (253) and 150 receiving yards (189).Giovanni Bernard has a touchdown catch in two of his past three games on road. He is one of three running backs (Matt Forte and Theo Riddick) with over 195 catches (198) and eight receiving touchdowns since entering league in 2013. Jeremy Hill had 154 rushing yards with two touchdowns in his only game against Jacksonville (11/2/14).
• A.J. Green had a touchdown catch last week. He has four touchdown catches in his past five games. Green aims for his fourth meeting in row against Jacksonville with a receiving touchdown. In tow career games at Jacksonville, Green has 207 receiving yards (103.5 per game) with two touchdown catches. Since entering league in 2011, he is one of three receivers (Antonio Brown and Demaryius Thomas) with over 500 catches (519), 7,500 receiving yards (7,707) and 50 touchdown catches (53). Tyler Kroft has three touchdown catches in his past two road games.
• Dunlap had a sack and interception for a touchdown last week. He aims for his third meeting with the Jaguars in row with a sack. Geno Atkins had a sack in Week 8. He had 2 sacks in last game at Jacksonville. Since entering league in 2010, Atkins has 57 sacks, most among defensive tackles. Vontaze Burfict had eight tackles and a sack in his last meeting with the Jaguars. George Iloka had an interception last time he played the Jaguars. Darqueze Dennard tied a career-high with 10 tackles in Week 8.

Jacksonville Jaguars

• Blake Bortles passed for 330 yards with TD for a passer rating of 124.7 in Week 7. He had two touchdown passes and a 96.4 passer rating in last meeting with Cincinnati. He has five passing touchdowns and one interception fora 105.9 passer rating in his past two games at home.
• Fournette has rushed for 311 yards (155.5 per game) with three touchdowns in his past two games. He aims for his third in row with over 130 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Fournette is the only AFC player with over 500 rushing yards (596) and six rushing touchdowns in 2017.Chris Ivory had a rushing touchdown in Week 7. T.J. Yeldon had a career-high 122 rushing yards with a touchdown in Week 7.
• Allen Hurns had 101 receiving yards in Week 7, his eighth career game of over 100 receiving yards. He had 112 receiving yards with two touchdown catches in his only career meeting with the Bengals. Marcedes Lewis had a touchdown catch in last game against the Bengals. He has four touchdown catches in 2017, tied for third among tight ends.
• The Jaguars lead the NFL with 33 sacks. They had 10 sacks in Week 7 and are the first team in NFL history with two 10 sacks games in their first seven games of the season. Calais Campbell had two sacks in Week 7. He has three multi-sack games in 2017, tied for most in NFL. Campbell is tied for second in the league with 10 sacks, the most by a player in his first seven games with new team. Yannick Ngakoue had a career-high 2.5 sacks in Week 7. He has 4.5 sacks in the past four games. Telvin Smith has over 10 tackles in three of the past four games. A.J. Bouye had three passes defended in his last game against the Bengals when he was a member of the Texans.