NFL Week 14: Bengals vs Bears Madden simulation

The Bengals’ playoff chances took a big blow with their loss to the Steelers on Monday Night Football. Now with the Ravens holding a tiebreaker over the Bengals, fans should be cheering on every team playing the Ravens. Either way the first focus for the Bengals if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs needs to be winning out. Even then, the Bengals’ playoff chances are very low. The Bears have been experiencing another rough season, but the Bengals typically struggle against rookie quarterbacks so it’ll be an interesting matchup. The Bengals also have a banged up secondary so some players will be getting their first real snaps this season.

Who does Madden think will win this game? We simulated the game to see who it predicted as the victor. Warning: it’s not going to be pretty. Be sure to watch the video above or read the recap below!

The Bears started off with the ball and tried to establish the run, but couldn’t get anything going. This started off a long series of failed drives between both teams. On one of the drives, a dropped pass by Josh Malone on a deep pass robbed the Bengals of a touchdown. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Bears were able to get a drive going. Through short passes and Jordan Howard runs the Bears pulled into the redzone where the Bengals clamped down forcing the Bears to settle for a field goal.

The Bengals got the ball with just under four minutes left in the second quarter. Joe Mixon was finally able to get going and Andy Dalton was hitting all of his receivers for solid gains. The Bengals quickly moved down the field and into the redzone. On first and goal with less than one minute left, Dalton didn’t see any open wide receivers and ran the ball in for a touchdown himself. The Bengals took a 7-3 lead.

The Bears received the ball and Mitch Trubisky dotted up the Bengals’ prevent defense. With less than 10 seconds left in the half, Trubisky hit Josh Bellamy over the middle and the Bears took a timeout safely in field goal range. The Bears hit the field goal to make it a one point game and the Bengal’s pre-halftime woes continued.

The Bengals started the second half by receiving the ball, but they were unable to get anything going and had to punt the ball. Once again, on the next drive the Bengals’ defense couldn’t stop the run and Howard dominated. The Bears ran the ball 10 times and passed just once as they marched down the field. On first and goal Carl Lawson got a sack and pushed the Bears back to the 17 yard line. The Bears were unable to progress after that and ended up having to kick the field goal to take the lead.

The Bengals received the ball and their offense once again started to struggle, leading to a series of failed drives by both teams. Midway through the fourth quarter the Bengals receive the ball and need to put points on the board to stay in the game. With a deep completion to A.J. Green, the Bengals got into the redzone. The Bengals were unable to score and settled for a field goal and a one point lead.

The Bears started to drive down the field once they got the ball back and the Bengals got them into third down situations multiple times but were unable to close the deal. The Bears got within the 10 yard line with a long run and tried their best to run out the clock with Jordan Howard. The Bengals stopped the Bears near the goal line with one minute left and no timeouts. The Bears made the field goal to take the lead with under a minute left.

The Bengals receive the ball and start to drive down the field. They make good progress to the 41 yard line but then the drive stalls. On fourth down with time expiring the Bengals attempted a field goal, but Randy Bullock lands it short, leading to a Bengals loss. This loss effectively knocks the Bengals out of the playoffs, but does potentially help their draft stock.

Is this what you expect from the Bengals on Sunday?