New coach and Ocho Cinco picks? Five things you need to know about the Cincinnati Bengals
The Seattle Seahawks begin their quest for the Super Bowl on Sunday and with fresh contracts and new additions. Optimism in the organization and the fan base is very high.
When they kick off at 1 p.m. inside CenturyLink Field, they’ll be facing a team that doesn’t have many Super Bowl aspirations and will feature a head coach in his first-ever regular season game. Here are five things you need to know about the Cincinnati Bengals.
Zac’s first day at work
Sunday marks the regular season debut of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. The former Nebraska Cornhuskers QB has spent 10 years on college and pro sidelines as an assistant but has never been a head coach.
He and Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll have gone head to head before. In 2006, Nebraska traveled to face the USC Trojans. In that game it was Carroll getting the best of Taylor in a 28-10 USC victory. Taylor was the starting QB in that game and was 8 for 16 for 115 yards passing.
Clowney Comin’
When Jadeveon Clowney makes his Seattle Seahawks debut, he will be going up against a familiar AFC foe in the Bengals. As A Houston Texas, Clowney played against the Bengals in three games and picked up a total of 10 tackles (three were tackles for a loss).
It is unclear how much time Clowney will see on Sunday but we do know Cincinnati has finished in the middle of the pack in the league in the last four seasons, giving up 2.5 sacks per game. In 2018, Bengals QB Andy Dalton was sacked 21 times in 11 games.
Season opener success
The Bengals have not reached the playoffs since 2015, but they are 3-1 in their last four openers, including 2018’s 34-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
On the other side of the coin, the Seahawks are 1-3 in their last four season openers with their last win coming in 2016 in a 12-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins at CenturyLink Field.
Preparing for noise
When college football teams hit the road in a tough environment, you tend to see them preparing for noise. For the Bengals, their season opener in Seattle is no different. On Wednesday, Taylor talked about his time as an assistant with the Rams and how they struggled to call plays in Seattle. He explained to Cincinnati.com just how hard it was.
“It’s a great test. We feel like we have an answer.”
Ocho Cinco Upset?
Chad Johnson, or Chad Ocho Cinco, is a Bengal and will always be known as one. So it really shouldn’t be a shock to know that he’s picking his former team to pull off a season opening upset over the Seahawks.
He wouldn’t give a final score but he did give a detailed account on how Cincinnati would win the game on Twitter.
We’ll see what happens on Sunday.
This story was originally published September 5, 2019 at 6:00 AM.