On Sunday, the 9-5 Cincinnati Bengals hold their final home game of the regular season at Paul Brown Stadium as they take on the 3-11 Kansas City Chiefs. For the third-straight week, the Bengals look to clinch their first AFC North title since 2005 with a win.
Will the Bengals finally clinch the AFC North this week and end their two-game losing streak?
After winning five of seven, the Bengals look to end a two-game losing streak against the Chiefs and finally secure a playoff spot for the first time in four years. Since defeating the Detroit Lion 23-13 in Week 13, Cincinnati has needed to win just once in their final four games to secure the AFC North and a guarantee of at least one home game at Paul Brown Stadium in the postseason.
The Bengals may be riding a two-game losing streak, but they were against the Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers—two of the best teams in football. Despite their embarrassing loss to Minnesota, Cincinnati's performance against San Diego proved this team is capable of competing with playoff-caliber teams—assuming they make the postseason.
This week, the Bengals could not have asked for a better team to end their streak against than the Chiefs. Kansas City is scoring just 17.1 points-per-game while their defense is allowing opposing teams to average 27.4 points-per-game.
How will Larry Johnson and the rest of the running game perform against his former team?
Earlier this season, Cedric Benson faced his former team in the Chicago Bears and rushed for a career high 189 yards. With Larry Johnson facing his former teammates from earlier this season on Sunday, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis hopes he can see similar results from both running backs against one of the league's worst defenses at stopping the run.
The Chiefs rank 31st in the NFL when it comes to stopping the run, allowing 162.6 yards-per-game on the ground. Over their last three games, the defense has allowed 265.3 yards-per-game, including 286 yards and three touchdowns to Cleveland Browns running back Jerome Harrison.
For a majority of the season, the Bengals have relied heavily on their ground game to carry the load on offense. With the way things have gone for the Chiefs and stopping the run lately, Benson and Johnson should have a field day against Kansas City on Sunday.
Five days after Chris Henry's funeral, will the Bengals be rested enough against the Chiefs?
On Tuesday, the Bengals traveled to Westwego, Louisiana to pay their final respects to Chris Henry, who passed away on December 17 after suffering head injuries sustained from falling out from the bed of a pickup truck. Even though the funeral was Tuesday, Cincinnati should be concerned about whether or not the extra traveling will have an effect on their performance Sunday.
Henry was the second member lost in the Bengals' family this season after defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer's wife, Vicki, passed away in October. Later that week, Cincinnati struggled at Paul Brown Stadium against the Houston Texans and lost 28-17.
Even though the Chiefs are nowhere nearly as talents as the Texans, it should be interesting to see if Henry's funeral and extra traveling has an influence on the Bengals' performance this weekend. Hopefully, there will be no issue for the Bengals and they secure that AFC North titlethe city of Cincinnati has been waiting to clinch the last three weeks.
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