Bengals-Lions: Cincinnati Has Upper Hand with Detroit's Road Struggles

With the 2-9 Detroit Lions traveling to Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday, Cincinnati-Bengals-Examiner~y2009m12d5-BengalsLions-Cincinnati-has-upper-hand-with-Detroits-road-struggles" title="the 8-3 Cincinnati Bengals look to take advantage">the 8-3 Cincinnati Bengals look to take advantage of a team who has struggled on the road over the last few years.

Through 12 weeks, the Lions are 0-5 away from Ford Field this season and have lost to their opponents—Saints, Bears, Packers, Seahawks, and Vikings—by an average of 19.4 points. Dating back to the 2004 season, they have only won four of their last 42 games on the road. Their last victory away from home came on October 27, 2008 against the Chicago Bears—which means they have lost 17 straight road games.

While this statistic may not be as meaningful considering the Lions have won a total of just nine games over the last three seasons, the Bengals have to be excited about playing Detroit in hope of getting out of their offensive funk.

Despite an 8-3 record, the Bengals offense has struggled to score points this season—which is hard to believe considering the level of talent they have.

They have everything a powerful offense could ask for. A strong leader at quarterback in Carson Palmer. A strong running game led by Cedric Benson. A talented group of wide receivers in Chad Ochocinco and Laveranues Coles to throw to.

With the amount of talent on offense, it's hard to imagine the Bengals have won three of their last four games despite scoring less than 18 points each contest. Lucky for the offense, they have the support of a ferocious defense which ranks at the top of the league in points allowed per game (15.8).

The success of the Bengals scoring defense this season makes Sunday’s matchup interesting considering the Lions find themselves last in the NFL, allowing their opponents to score 30.5 points-per-game. In other words, the team allowing the fewest points allowed per game is squaring up against the team allowing the most points scored per game.

While the Bengals has struggled to score a majority of the season and rank 17th in points-per-game (21), Cincinnati has shown us how dangerous they can be when their offense gets going.

The Bengals best offensive performance of the season came in Week Seven against the Chicago Bears. Not only did Cincinnati take advantage of a banged-up Chicago defense in their 45-10 victory, but they nearly did it in perfection.

Palmer completed 20-of-24 passes for 233 yards and five touchdowns. Benson ran for a career high 189 yards on 37 carries. Ochocinco hauled in 10 receptions for 118 yards and two touchdowns.

Marvin Lewis knows his team has one of the top defenses in the NFL. If the Bengals offense performed as well as they did against the Bears on a weekly basis, more people would be placing their name in the same sentence as the word "Super Bowl."

Unfortunately, the offense needs to get out of this so-called "funk" before any of that happens. Lucky for the Bengals, their offense has the potential for a high-scoring game considering the Lions seem to be the perfect fit to help them get out of their offensive funk.

Dan Parzych is the Cincinnati Bengals Examiner for Examiner.com

He is also the founder of WhoDeyBengals.com

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