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0-4 hosting 0-3-1. Something’s gotta give.
A week after inducting Carson Palmer into their Ring of Honor, the Arizona Cardinals will take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Paul Brown Stadium. Two winless teams facing off in October is the reason why good football shouldn’t be taken for granted. But by the grace of the football gods, one of these teams will come out with a win.
For some Bengals fans, the tank has been fully embraced, and they wouldn’t mind rookie head coach Kliff Kingsbury and his rookie quarterback Kyler Murray to keep ahead of them in the NFL Draft order. After Monday night’s loss to the Steelers, it’s hard to blame them.
But it’s Week 5, and job security is a rare commodity in this league. Why are Kingsbury and Murray rookies together in Arizona? Because the last head coach and quarterback got booted out of town after just one year.
Will that happen to Bengals’ rookie head coach Zac Taylor? Probably not. But there’s no reason to believe that he’s thinking about tanking, especially when he’s got a struggling opponent coming to town that he has experience coaching twice a year against.
The Cardinals are the third NFC West team Taylor will face off against. The only team in that division he’s yet to run into is the team he used to work for: the Los Angeles Rams. The Cardinals are 27th and 25th in Football Outsiders’ offensive and defensive DVOA metric. This doesn’t seem very intimidating until you find out the Bengals are 31st and 30th in those categories.
Even against another winless squad, the Bengals appear to be the underdogs. But that’s why they play the games! For all the latest news and analysis for Bengals vs. Cardinals, keep it locked in to this stream.