I’m hopeful that they end up the 2/3 seeds and we can let them fight it out in the divisional round. If they play the right kind of game, both could beat the Patriots, but I agree, Peyton in January, especially now and outside, is not someone who I think can drop 300+ yards on our defense.
I really like the Bengals and admire how they’ve drafted, stayed true to their coach and quarterback and they’re having success now because of it. More teams should model themselves this way, but are instead chasing 12 win seasons every year and blowing things up when they don’t hit that mark.
New England’s offense vs. Denver’s defense is an epic matchup, but I think the Bengals would give the Patriots more problems matchup-wise across the board with their weaponry. Lot of Pats fans seem to just assume Andy Dalton will stink in the playoffs but I’m not convinced. Look at the games Eli Manning and Mark Sanchez put together against us. When a QB plays mistake-free the game can go either way.
The problem with the Bengals is their size on offense. How do you cover Eifert? Chung is at a size disadvantage. Maybe Collins, but that takes him out of covering RBs, how they usually use him.
No matter what the trickle down effect is going to mean some combo of Ryan/Coleman/McCourty for Sanu/Jones and any way you cut it those are size mismatches. And Butler is good but is he really going to shut down Green? He’s probably going to need over the top help from Harmon.
Maybe Peyton has one last hurrah in him to knock off the Patriots, but it’s Dalton and the Bengals across-the-board talent that would worry me more. Pats will be favored against either, likely home or away, but I don’t think either team would be an easy walkover win like the Colts were last year.