Bengals at Ravens: Madden simulation

Normally at this point in the season, fans are either rooting for a win to help with the playoffs or a loss to help with draft order.

But occasionally, a team gets an opportunity to knock a hated division rival out of the playoffs and they have to take that opportunity. If the Ravens win this game, they will be in the playoffs. But if the Bengals win, the Ravens will need a couple other games to go their way to get in.

So even if it will hurt their draft stock, it would be definitely worth it for the Bengals to avenge their earlier loss and knock a division rival out of the playoffs potentially.

To start off the game ,the Bengals receive the ball and Alex Erickson gets tackled at the 15-yard line for a very poor return. That doesn’t deter the Bengals, as they quickly start stringing together first downs.

Andy Dalton starts off looking sharp with multiple good passes to A.J. Green. However, when they get inside the 30, Dalton is sacked and the Bengals are unable to recover. The Bengals have to take a field goal and take the 3-0 lead on their first drive.

After the Bengals first successful drive both team is unable to get anything going on offense with a series of consecutive three-and-outs it is a defensive slug fest. Eventually, the Bengals receive the ball with good field position. The Bengals are finally able to get their run game going thanks to Joe Mixon turning some losses into big gains.

Once again, they get inside field goal range, but the drive stalls because of a sack. This time they get a little closer, but still can’t get the first. The Bengals settle for the field goal and the six-point lead.

The Bengals kick off to the Ravens who once again go quickly three and out. The Bengals receive the Ravens punt and start moving down the field. Dalton hits Boyd down the sideline for a long completion, but he was unable to get the touchdown and was stopped short on the one yard line.

On the next play, Dalton hits Tyler Kroft in the endzone for the touchdown. After the extra point, the Bengals take the 13-point lead.

After the touchdown, a long series of failed drives leads both teams into halftime and beyond. This is a serious showing of offensive ineptitude by both teams.

The Ravens eventually get a good drive going, but on 4th and 8 from the 9-yard line Joe Flacco throws the pass into the endzone and the pass is broken up by Dre Kirkpatrick and almost intercepted.

The Bengals get the ball back there and start to run the ball down the Ravens’ throats. They get multiple first downs and chew up almost all of the clock and all of the Ravens timeouts.

With about a minute left the Ravens receive a punt and start to march down the field. However, after they run a play with 15 seconds left they, are unable to get back to the line of scrimmage and time runs out.

The Bengals down the Ravens 13-0 and potentially knock the Ravens out of the playoffs.