Football Outsiders doesn’t take into account the opponent until week 4. (Cite)
The Bengals defense, the supposedly strong part of the team, has given up 71 points and almost 900 yards in two games. That’s just not going to cut it. That’s over half a mile!
I know you’re a fan, but you might want to think about recalibrating your idea of “characteristic.”
Nice 
In fairness, though, their defense has been very good over the last three seasons.
The league stepped in and has fined Golden Tate $21,000 for the illegal hit.
Not for nothing, but every former player I heard on Mike & Mike this week said they had no problem with the kneel-down play in the Bucs/Giants game. Golic, Cris Carter and Matt Light were among them; I don’t remember who the other two were.
Ha, but truthfully, the Bengals defense statistically has ranked in the top fifteen the last four years, and in two of those years in the top 10, once in the top 5. And this without any real stars aside from Leon Hall and the departed Johnathon Joseph. And without any decent pass rush other than last season.
So the expectation was there for this trend to continue and so far this season, it hasn’t. RGIII is going to present some problems, for sure.
I’ve got Washington at a 1 in my confidence pool this week and that after first choosing Cincinnati. That’s a pretty tough one to call. Should be brisk and windy too.
There’s not a confidence pool thread/discussion going on anywhere is there? I’d sure enjoy hearing others’ thoughts on weekly matchups.
Its a weird matchup. The Bengals have not lost to the Skins in Washington in 27 years, although they don’t often play each other. RGIII is still getting his sea legs, although he looks pretty good. The Bengals are going to be focusing really hard on defense, as they have played poorly the first two games and their d-coordinator Mike Zimmer is a hard-nosed SOB that’s had it with his unit. He’s going to be breathing fire all week. The Redskins have a pretty solid defense, so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare against the Bengals offense, which is starting to take steps in the right direction.
Link to Week 3thread.