NFL Pre-Season Football – New York vs Cincinnati Preview
The Cincinnati Bengals and the New York Jets begin their 2012 NFL Preseason as they face off on Friday at Paul Brown Stadium.
When: Friday, 7:30 PM EST
Where: Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, OH
TV: NFL
LINE: -1.5 (Bengals), O/U 34
Similar to all preseason games, this one is tough to call. NFL football is hard enough to predict when we all know who is going to hit the field on Sunday, so not knowing makes it a guessing game. Especially with a matchup like this.
It will be interesting to see how the Jets use Tim Tebow as the preseason progresses. This has been the story of the off-season thus far, and you can probably expect it to linger if Tebow has any success in the preseason throwing the football.
Nevertheless, the real position battle for New TYork is for the third quarterback slot. It was Greg McElroy a year ago, and he came into camp with the upper hand. Newcomer, Matt Simms has had a very good camp to this point though, and if he follows that up with a strong performance in the preseason, he could easily take the third spot. Expect both to these guys to see time in this one.
Defensively, the Jets will be busy too, as they have a couple of new safeties that will try to unseat Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie
Meanwhile, the Bengals will be trying to iron out the hierarchy of their running game. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Although they brought in BenJarvus Green-Ellis to start, there is some healthy competition behind him including Bernard Scott, Brian Leonard, Daniel Herron, Cedric Peerman, and Aaron Brown. All who will battle for spots during the preseason.
It will be interesting to see how the Bengals distribute their carries in the upcoming games. Herron is a guy they are probably going to want to keep around, which means that the other two on the back end of the depth chart are going to have to impress in very limited time if they expect to make the cut.
Finally, Cincy will also be evaluating their receiving corps.
The team quietly upgraded their options at the position, and you can expect some jostling over the preseason as Brandon Tate and A.J. Green battle to keep their starting spots against rookies Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones.
Matt’s Free Prediction: Jets 21, Bengals 17–The Bengals have a lot of evaluating to be done, which means that we will probably see very limited action by their veteran players. Meanwhile, the Jets will be looking to use the preseason as a primer for their entire roster. Making it easy to see a slim win for New York in this one.
