The Cincinnati Bengals don’t face an easy task when the Philadelphia Eagles visit in Week 8.
There, the Bengals will look to claw back to .500, yet face an unorthodox opponent just starting to hit its stride.
Here’s a quick look at some top storylines and players to know for the matchup.
Tee Higgins
Before Friday, Higgins wasn’t a big feature of the pregame analysis. Then, he popped up on the injury report as questionable due to a quad injury. He’s been perhaps the most important aspect of the offense getting back on track, so it’s a huge problem if he’s suddenly unavailable.
The OL
It turns out left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. is good to go for the game despite the knee sprain issue that threatened to keep him out. The question is, how good will he be against a strong Eagles front seven? And what about the rest of the line, which has struggled in recent weeks against New York and Cleveland fronts that are very similar to what the Eagles do?
The defense
The defense is playing better, which sounds great, but how much of it was a product of playing Daniel Jones and Deshaun Watson? The interior of the defensive line is finally healthy, at least. But can someone like Joseph Ossai put together a second strong performance in a row and give Trey Hendrickson some relief? Will the secondary continue to gel, just in time to face an Eagles wideout group of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith? With the offense struggling over the last two weeks, the defense could again need to be the backbone of a winning effort.
