As much as people want to point the finger at Joe Burrow and, to a lesser extent Dak Prescott for their teams’ struggles, most of the blame lands squarely on the defense. Only the Panthers give up more points than these two teams. Both squads surrender 28.3 ppg and they’ve both been getting worse instead of better. Cincy has given up 34.8 ppg in their L5 games, including lowlights of giving up 44 to Pittsburgh and 34 to the Chargers. Meanwhile, the Cowboys look like they’ve packed it in for the year and their defense has given up 31.1 ppg in their L7 and surrendered 26 or more to everyone but the Giants (20 points) in that stretch.
The Bengals offense still can’t run the ball. Part of that is because they frequently find themselves and part of it is because they lost Zack Moss and Chase Brown in frustratingly inconsistent. But they still rank 5th in points scored at 27.9 ppg. Of the top 13 teams in points scored, only the Bengals are not currently holding a playoff spot.
The Bengals have seen the Over go 9-3 in their games, while Dallas is 8-4 to the Over. In addition, 9 of Cincy’s 12 games have exceeded 49.5 while Dallas has gotten there in six of 12.