Week 12 - 2008 Season - Thursday Night Game

Cincinnati Bengals @ Pittsburgh Steelers


Cincinnati actually has played good football the last 2 games winning over Jacksonville and tying Philadelphia. Cincinnati roads games except for week 10 against Houston (lost 6 to 35) and the Jets game, have been close and against some of this years better teams. (Baltimore - lost 10-17, NY Giants - lost 23-26, Dallas -lost 22-31)

Pittsburgh at home is 3 - 2, and close games also, but losing in recent weeks to Giants and Colts. Winning over Sd, Balt, Houston. Pittsburgh earlier this year beat Cincinnati in Cincinnati 38 to 10.

But, lets talk about QBs, Ben Roethlisberger has struggled recently, but is showing steady games, despite being sacked 32 times in 10 games... in 6 of them 10 games, he has had 3 or more sacked layed on him but passed for 195 avg ypg. in the other 4 games he has been layed out less than 2 times and passed for 205 avg ypg. Also, when Big Ben sees fewer sacks, the Steelers get about 10 more pts per game.

Ryan Fitzpatrick gets sacked too, but not as much as Ben, even though Ryan is prone to hold on to the ball too long, he moves more than Ben does... Numbers on Ryan are comparable to Big Ben - 62.9% completion rate, 71.3 overall QB rating...

Weather could play a factor in this game, forecast is calling for snow, so maybe the Bengals will need more of RB Cedric Benson than Ryan Fitzpatrick. But the Steelers’ run defense is very tough and isn’t often gashed by strong, plodding runners like Benson. Also the Bengals may have rookie OT Anthony Collins making his first start on the left side, trying to keep James Harrison from laying out Friz... On the same note the Steelers, if snowy conditions exist, we could see RB Willie Parker also get plenty of work; he seems to have mastered running on the tricky Heinz Field grass slab.

So it comes down to this, Bengals have a outside chance of pulling a upset, IF they end up sacking Big Ben at least three times or more on Thursday and forcing him to throw 2 or more interceptions. Also like so many other teams and games, the Bengals must try to hold Willie Parker and Mewelde Moore to under 100 rushing yards. All of that will be hard to with 9 players being ruled out from playing. Long shot at best but doable if Bengals 'new' defense comes to play and plays rough and tumble... My Pick - Steelers