Bengals at Seahawks: Madden predicts a thriller in Seattle

The Bengals’ road to improvement with their new coach begins with a tough matchup in Week 1.

With a powerful offense and a very strong front seven, the Seahawks make for an imposing first opponent. Cincinnati will have their hands full if they want to get off to a 1-0 start, but it’s fitting that they have to go through Seattle to do so, as it was a miraculous win against the Seahawks in 2015 that made that Bengals team a worthy contender.

So, how does Madden predict this game will turn out? Let’s take a look at the simulation and find out!

For the first drive of the game the Seahawks start with the ball and get a really good pace started up. They are able to get down the field very easily. However, once they get to the Bengals side of the field they are slowed down and stopped by the Bengals bend but don’t break defense. They are forced to settle for a field goal and the early three point lead.

Seahawks: 3-0

After the Seahawks field goal the Bengals receiver the ball and their offense looks really good. They are able to drive all the way down the field lead by Andy Dalton who looks very sharp. They get inside the ten and John Ross III continues his red zone touchdown domination when Andy Dalton connects with him for the score. Bengals lead 7-3.

Bengals: 7-3

After this, the Bengals defense must have been feeling motivated because as the Seahawks’ offense approached mid-field, the defense locked them down and got the ball back for the Bengals. The Bengals take advantage of this and quickly drive down the field. Once they enter in the red zone, Andy Dalton is able to spread the ball out and find Tyler Boyd for a touchdown extending the lead to 14-3.

Bengals: 14-3

The Seahawks, with very little time on the clock, hit big play after big play and are able to score on a long touchdown pass to David Moore. Leaving very little time on the clock for the Bengals to do something, the Seahawks have closed the gap to 14-10 right before the half.

Bengals: 14-10

Despite the short amount of time the Bengals did in fact do something: fumble the ball away! Enough time was left for the Seahawks to drive back down the field and get an easy field goal. Seahawks bring the score to 14-13.

Bengals: 14-13

After halftime neither team is able to get much going offensively or at least for the third quarter. Towards the end of the period, the Seahawks are finally able to get a drive going and find the end zone through the air on one of the first plays of the fourth quarter. Following a failed two-point conversion, they retake the lead 19-14.

Seahawks: 19-14

The Bengals then drive down the field in a moment reminiscent of the game against the 2015 Seahawks: Dalton scores on a throw to Tyler Eifert in the back of the end zone. The Bengals also fail on their own two-point conversion, but still have the lead back at 20-19.

Bengals: 20-19

After the Eifert touchdown, the Seahawks receive the ball and something all too familiar happens as the Bengals defense gives up first down after first down. Eventually, the Seahawks get into field goal range and run the clock down the 30 seconds also taking all of the Bengals timeouts off the clock. The Seahawks make the field goal and take the lead 22-20.

Seahawks: 22-20

The Bengals, with no timeouts and very little time on the clock, are not able to get very far down the field and time runs out. The Seahawks take home the victory.