NFL Week 5 Primer: Cincinnati Bengals (0-4) vs. Arizona Cardinals (0-3-1)

The Bengals will be doing a few things again this week that they’ve done already this season. They are facing a winless team in the Arizona Cardinals, and they also happen to be the third NFC West team Cincinnati will face this season.

It will obviously be a tough week leading up to the game after the Bengals fell to 0-4 on Monday Night Football against the winless Steelers. It was a game where somehow Cincinnati didn’t look like they belonged on the same field. Hopefully, it can be used as a wake-up call, and they can finally secure their first win of the season.

If the Bengals can’t manage to beat Arizona, the rest of their games leading up to the Week 9 bye aren’t going to be any easier with the rest of those teams sitting at .500 or above.

The Cardinals are in a weird situation this season. They hired Kliff Kingsbury this offseason after moving on from a coaching staff that had one year to try and turn the Cardinals around. They also traded away the quarterback they traded up to draft in 2018, Josh Rosen, and decided to use the first overall pick on Kyler Murray. The rookie quarterback hasn’t looked terrible, but the team doesn’t look that much better than last year’s squad as a whole.

One thing the Bengals can hopefully change this week is to look competitive again (especially against bad teams).

Everything you need to know for the Bengals game against the Cardinals:

Game: Cincinnati Bengals (0-4) vs Arizona Cardinals (0-3-1)

Date/Time: Oct. 6th, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. EST

Location: Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio

Series Leader: The Bengals lead the series 6-5

Streak: The Cardinals have won three of the past four meetings

Coaches vs. Opponent: Zac Taylor: 0-0. Kliff Kingsbury (0-0)

TV Broadcast: The game will air on FOX-TV. In the Bengals’ home region, it will be carried by WXIX-TV (Ch. 19) in Cincinnati, WGRT-TV (Ch. 45) in Dayton, WDKY-TV (Ch. 56) in Lexington, and WTTE-TV (Ch. 28) in Columbus.

Broadcasters: are Thom Brennaman (play-by-play), Chris Spielman (analyst) and Shannon Spake (sideline reporter).

Radio Broadcast: The game will air 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).

SB Nation Cardinals’ site: Revenge of the Birds

Weather: High 60’s, partly cloudy [NFL weather]

Odds: Bengals, -4 [Odds Shark]

Bengals Notes

• Quarterback Andy Dalton passed for 171 yards last week. He has 469 pass yards (234.5 per game), four touchdowns without an interception for a 96.7 passer rating in two career games against the Cardinals. Dalton aims for his seventh in a row vs. the NFC West with at least two touchdown passes and a passer rating of 90.
• Running back Joe Mixon had a team-high 62 rushing yards last week. He as at least 95 yards from scrimmage in three of his past four games at home. Running back Giovani Bernard had eight catches for a career-high 128 receiving yards in his last meeting.
• Wide receiver Tyler Boyd has at least six catches and 60 receiving yards in three of the past four games. He aims for his fourth in a row against the NFC West with at least eight catches. Wide receiver Auden Tate had a team-high 50 receiving yards last week. Tight end Tyler Eifert had two touchdown catches in the last meeting. He has six receiving touchdowns in five career games against the NFC West.
• Defensive tackle Geno Atkins had a sack in the last meeting. He has a sack in two of his past three at home against the NFC West. Defensive end Carlos Dunlap had a sack in the last home meeting. Since entering league in 2010, Atkins (72) and Dunlap (73.5) are the only pair of teammates each with at least 70 sacks. Defensive end Sam Hubbard had five tackles last week. He has a sack in two of his past three at home. Linebacker Nick Vigil led the team with 11 tackles, two passes defended and a forced fumble last week. Cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick had six tackles and a tackle for a loss in Week 4. He aims for his fifth in a row with at least five tackles. Safety Jessie Bates had six tackles and his first career fumble recovery last week. He aims for his fifth in a row with at least five tackles.

Cardinals Notes

• Quarterback Kyler Murray passed for 241 yards and had his first career rushing touchdown in Week 4. He is one of two NFC quarterbacks (Matt Ryan) with at least 20 completions in each of his team’s first four games in 2019. He is tied for third in the NFL with 106 completions and is one of four quarterbacks with 100 completions in his first four starts since 1970.
• Running back David Johnson had 139 scrimmage yards (99 receiving and 40 rushing) last week. He is one of three active running backs (Alvin Kamara and Darren Sproles) with at least four games of 90 receiving yards. He has six receptions in three of his past four. He had a receiving touchdown in his last meeting. Johnson aims for his third in a row against the AFC North with touchdown. He has a rushing touchdown in two of his past three games on the road.
• Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald had five catches in Week 4. He has 1,326 career receptions and surpassed Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez (1,325) for second-most catches in NFL history. He has 22 receptions for 288 yards (96 per game) and two touchdowns in three career games against Cincinnati. He aims for his third game in a row at Cincinnati with at least 90 receiving yards and a touchdown catch.
• Linebacker Chandler Jones has 4.5 sacks, four tackles for a loss and a forced fumble in his past five games on the road against the AFC. Since 2015, he leads the NFL with 56.5 sacks. Linebacker Terrell Suggs had 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble last week. He leads all active players with 136 sacks. He had a career-high three passes defended in his last game at Cincinnati (9/13/18 with Baltimore). He has three sacks in his past four on the road against the Bengals. Linebacker Jordan Hicks led the team with 12 tackles and had two forced fumbles and half of a sack in Week 4. He leads the NFL with 48 tackles and is the only player in the NFL with at least 10 tackles in each of his first four games. Linebacker Haason Reddick had a sack and tackle for a loss last week.