Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: NFL Week 12

The Cincinnati Bengals, who are still looking for that elusive first win, are now in the final third of their 2019 season. Interestingly enough, five of their final six games will be in the state of Ohio and three of them are AFC North matchups.

The first one is a game against the battered but brutish Pittsburgh Steelers. The team of black and yellow is a week removed from an ugly 21-7 defeat by the hands of the Cleveland Browns that ended even more despicable than the game already was. A brawl centered around Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett resulted in three separate suspensions and took the NFL media by storm.

Before the scrap, the Steelers had already suffered several injuries. Wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson both suffered concussions, and Smith-Schuster hurt his knee as well. Both of those players, along with James Conner, figure to miss this game Conner re-injured his shoulder.

The Steelers’ offense is a giant question mark, but their defense is still elite. They’re third in the NFL according to Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric on that side of the ball. The Bengals don’t need to know that to know how formidable that unit is; they allowed eight sacks to them just two months ago.

A repeat of that three-point performance from late September will surely mean another loss is in store for the Bengals. Luckily, their run game seems to be picking up some momentum. Joe Mixon has more rushing yards over the last three games than he had in his first seven.

Even with an improved ground attack, It’ll be ultimately be up to Ryan Finley to put up enough points against one of the best defenses in the league. For all the latest updates pertaining to the Bengals and Steelers Week 12 matchup, keep it locked in to this stream.