The Arizona Cardinals will play the Cincinnati Bengals in a preseason game at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio on Friday night.
The Arizona Cardinals were 11-6 in the regular season last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs by a score of 34-11 to the Los Angeles Rams. Arizona’s top two quarterbacks, Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy, will not play in this game, leaving Trace McSorley and Jarrett Guarantano as the signal callers on Friday night. On top of Murray and McCoy not playing, more than few other starters for Arizona will not see the field. With this amount of starters not playing in this game, it opens the door for some of the lesser-known players to take the spotlight. One player to watch for Arizona is running back Eno Benjamin, who has had good reviews this off season and is fighting for the backup running back role.
The Cincinnati Bengals were 10-7 in the regular season last year and lost in the Super Bowl to the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 23-20. Cincinnati will be looking to make a repeat trip to the Super Bowl this season and it all starts with this first preseason game. Joe Burrow will not be playing quarterback in this game, leaving Brandon Allen and Jake Browning as the quarterbacks for Friday night. Cincinnati also has a list of starters not playing in this game, similar to Arizona. One player to watch for Cincinnati is Chris Evans, who may have the chance at the backup running back job, but is a very exciting player.
With both sides resting a good amount of their starters, it will be interesting to see which team’s backups step up and play better. Arizona is hurting at the quarterback position with their third and fourth stringers playing, while Cincinnati will at least have their second string QB playing. We have a seen a good amount of points in the first three preseason games this year, but I think we get a lower scoring game here. With the quarterback situation on both sides, I am taking the under.
AUTHOR: David Racey
Mitch's Take...
