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The NFL has suspended cornerback Jonathan Joseph for this week’s game with Kansas City for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. He has made 10 tackles so far this season. It’s hard to say how much the Bengals will miss Joseph because no one has played any defense for the Bengals this season anyway.
The Bengals are averaging 26.5 points per game and 365.5 yards per game……and they are 1-3. The reason for that is the defense is downright pathetic. There have been some injuries but most of the reason for the poor defensive play is because the Bengals don’t have any Pro Bowl type players on that side of the football. They are allowing 152.0 yards rushing per game (5.3 ypc) and they allow 251.0 yards passing per game. The Bengals are allowing 32.3 points per game and they will be lucky to win 4-5 games this season if they don’t improve on defense soon! They are putting too much pressure on the offense which has played pretty well but they can’t win games by themselves. The Bengals better focus on defense over the bye week.
The Bengals need some big plays from their kick returners but they have not been getting any. Skyler Green doesn’t get much work as the punt returner of the Bengals because of their awful defense so they need him to make some plays when he gets a chance. Green has only returned 4 punts for 22 yards this season (5.5 avg). Glenn Holt has really improved as a football player as he has caught 5 passes for 52 yards and a TD after only catching 1 pass for 3 yards as a rookie last year. But his biggest contribution on the Bengals could be as a kickoff returner as he has returned 17 kickoffs for 414 yards (24.4 avg) so far this season. The Bengals need more plays out of the special teams if they are going to help the offense stay close in game because they probably have the worst defense in the entire NFL.
The Bengals have claimed Corey Mays off waivers from New England out of desperation. Mays has nice size at 6′1″, 245 pounds but he hasn’t had a lot of playing time to prove himself in the NFL. He played in 1 game for the Patriots this season and he made 1 tackle. Mays has played in 8 games in his NFL career and he has made 10 tackles.
The Bengals have lost Lemar Marshall for the season after he tore his left ACL last night against the Patriots. He finishes the season with 8 tackles and 1 sack. This will hurt the Bengals big-time as they currently have very little depth at linebacker.