PERSONNEL NEWS

Strategy And Personnel

The Sports Xchange

October 11, 2018 at 3:02 am.

PLAYER NOTES

–TE Matt Lengel was signed off the Houston Texans practice squad on Wednesday to add some back of the roster depth. Lengel spent nearly two years on the practice squad and the signing was necessitated by Tyler Eifert going on injured reserve and Tyler Kroft’s foot in a walking boot.

–RB Giovani Bernard seems likely to miss his second straight game with a sprained knee. When the Bengals practiced Wednesday, he went to the rehab field carrying a brace.

–WR John Ross (groin) is making an attempt at playing this week. He sat out last week’s game but Wednesday was on the field stretching when practice started and the Bengals said he was limited in practice.

–MLB Preston Brown never missed a game in four seasons with the Buffalo Bills but a right ankle issue has limited him at times. He missed two games, parts of two other games and sat for a point in the first half in the Miami game when he aggravated the right ankle injury. He was limited in practice Wednesday and his status will be unknown until the league’s injury report surfaces on Friday. “It is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever dealt with in football,” Brown said. “When you’re starting to feel a little better, you get hit again and you’ve got to basically just start all over.”

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: DT Geno Atkins is off to a dominating start and it’s not just in the sack department. The basic data on his performance is the six sacks that ties him with T.J. and J.J. Watt for the league lead. It is halfway to his career high of 12.5 set in 2012 when he was an All-Pro player for the first of two times. “He’s unbelievable,” defensive coordinator Terry Austin said. “On one sack (against Miami), he beat the guy so fast I don’t know what you ask the quarterback to do. Besides the sacks, it’s the plays not resulting in opposing quarterbacks going down where Atkins is impacting things. Those who play alongside him on the defensive line do not need to be consumed by numbers and online data to know the impact Atkins is making. “He’s on fire right now,” DE Carlos Dunlap said. “We have a lot of youth and a lot of talent on the defensive line and he’s leading the pack, as he should and as he’s been doing.”

GAME PLAN: The Bengals don’t win very often against the Steelers but they go into this matchup feeling differently about their chances, thinking a win could change the narrative. How they change the narrative could hinge on what the game plan winds up being. The Bengals are still more of a pass team with A.J. Green on pace for 1,300 yards, 16 touchdowns and 90 catches. They also want to mix it up in the backfield by incorporating more Joe Mixon. Last week the Bengals achieved nearly a 50-50 split with quarterback Andy Dalton throwing 30 times while the ground game produced 26 carries.
MATCHUPS TO WATCH

–Bengals WRs vs. Steelers CB Artie Burns. Look for the Bengals to exploit a matchup with a struggling player. Burns has been targeted 22 times and opponents have caught 15 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns. He has been rotating the spot with Coty Sensabaugh but when he is out there, the Bengals will do their best to exploit his drop-off in production.

–Bengals secondary vs. Steelers WR Antonio Brown. Drama has been the focus of Brown’s season, but the numbers are still there with five touchdowns and 175 yards after the catch. However, the Bengals will be aggressive in going for interceptions when Brown is targeted for two reasons. One because of their aggressiveness and emphasis on takeaways and two because QB Ben Roethlisberger has four interceptions on passes targeted to Brown so far.

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