Fun With the Bungals

This week, the Minnesota Vikings face the AFC North leading Cincinatti Bengals, or as I like to call them the Bungals. This year, however, they haven’t lived up to that nickname. They’ve played some sensational football and were a fluke play away from being 10-2 instead of 9-3 had it not been for the crazy game-ending TD by the Broncos in Week 1. The Bengals have a potent defense with an offense that can be explosive but likes to pound the ball on the ground. Can they find a way to beat the Vikings this week, handing the purple a consecutive loss for the first time this season?

When I think about that question, I’d like to answer with a resounding “No” but it’s really hard to do that considering last week’s performance against the Cardinals. The Vikings played really, really bad last week and they can’t have a repeat or they will be writing another scratch mark in the loss column. Considering how much the Vikings have struggled on the ground lately, the Bengals are not the team the Vikings want to face right now. Cincinatti is now 1st in the NFL in run defense, allowing just 81.8 yards per game on the ground. You could look at it from the flip side and say that this is a great test for the Vikings to see if they can bounce back and have a fantastic day running the ball, but if you consider the injuries to the offensive line and their struggles then it doesn’t look so promising. Adrian Peterson hasn’t run for over 100 yards since Week 10 and has only topped that mark 3 times the entire season.

Meanwhile, as the Vikings struggle on the ground, the Bengals have been succeeding recently. They have had a RB top 100 yards 5 of the last 6 games, and they’ve done it with 3 different RBs including their recent free agent pickup Larry Johnson and the rookie Bernard Scott. Their offensive line has been extremely efficient at opening holes and allowing their RBs get to the second-level of defenses.

They realize that the run game is their strength and have run the ball the second most times of any team in the league. The Vikings will need to bring their A game in order to force Carson Palmer to make plays with his arm. Another neat stat is that the Vikings are allowing just over 60 yards per game on the ground at home. Hopefully, the trend continues this week.

If the Vikings can get an early lead and not give it up via Favre interceptions or Peterson fumbles, then I think they have a good chance of winning the game fairly easily. The Vikings still lead the league in sacks and Carson Palmer has played far from mistake-free football this season. He has yet to see a defensive line as potent as the Vikings. He has 10 interceptions this year, and hopefully the young Vikings secondary can up that number by a few tomorrow. Or, this can be Jared Allen sacking him a few times.

There are still some major injury concerns within the Vikings starting lineup. In the secondary, second-year safety Tyrell Johnson is doubtful and CBs Karl Paymah and Antoine Winfield are both questionable. Percy Harvin is having problems with migraines once again and is questionable along with rookie offensive tackle Phil Loadholt. The only offensive starters not on the injury report are Sidney Rice, John Sullivan, and Naufahu Tahi. The Bengals play a brand of football that is gritty and exhausting, and I just hope the Vikings can pull out a victory without sacrificing too many more injuries. Get it done Jared!

Tags: Adrian Peterson, bengals, Brett Favre, bungals, carson palmer, cedric benson, Jared Allen, minnesota, NFL, Vikings