Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals Preview, Prediction, & Storylines

The 0-5 Indianapolis Colts head to Cincinnati this Sunday to take on the 3-2 Cincinnati Bengals.  This is a rivalry dominated by the Colts with the Colts winning the last seven matchups.

Storylines:

The game has some good storylines around it, though.

The first major one is the game is blacked out in Cincinnati.

How can a game between two teams that are separated by just over 100 miles be blacked out? Especially when one of the teams playing has been so dominate over the last 10+ years.  Where are all the fans?

Another major storyline is the Bengals are attempting to tie their win total from all of last year.  Many, including myself, thought the Bengals would be worse than last year since they lost their starting quarterback and their top two wide receivers.  They have certainly surprised many people with rookie quarterback Andy Dalton and rookie wide receiver A.J. Green, jumping out to three wins already.

The last main storyline is how will the Colts respond to an 0-5 start?  They haven't been this bad since 1997.  It's not like they've been blown out.  They've had emotional losses every game—except Week 1 at Houston.  They should be 4-1 or even 3-2 at worst, right now, instead of 0-5.  After beating themselves and losing to one of the worst teams in the league last week against Kansas City, how will the veterans react?

It has to be hard if you're Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis to get up for this game.  These guys haven't been put in this scenario at all in their professional careers.  How will they respond to this game now that a playoff berth is pretty much unreachable?

PREVIEW:

The Colts offense has held them in games lately, but I fear it will end this week.

The Bengals have the NFL's No. 1 ranked defense and show no mercy.  If the Colts struggled in the second half against the league's worst last week, how can they do well against No. 1?

Curtis Painter is certainly playing well right now.  These last few weeks aren't his fault.  I hope they can get the same production out of Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon this week.  But I fear they won't.

The Colts also will be without starting running back Joseph Addai on Sunday.  They're left with a disappointing Donald Brown and rookie Delone Carter.  Expect the Bengals to force the Colts to beat them with the ground game and bring at least six DBs in to make it hard for Painter to pass.  That scares me.

The Colts defense could be without their best corner Jerraud Powers this weekend.  That's normally not a big loss, but when you're left with the league's worst corners—Jacob Lacey, Terrance Johnson and rookie Chris Rucker—you're in bad shape.  None of those three can play tight coverage and I fear A.J. Green will burn them all day. 

Be ready to hear the words "he beat him on the slant route" again on Sunday.  I'm so sick of seeing opposing teams do that to the Colts, but the corners are so bad it continues to happen.  Don't expect that to change this Sunday.

The Colts only hope is if they can get a good enough pass rush to rattle rookie Andy Dalton.  Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis can make it happen.  If they can tip some balls and get some sacks on early downs and force the Bengals on third and longs, they have a shot.

Prediction:

The Bengals are going to force Curtis Painter to beat them in reading coverages on more defensive backs than receivers and force the unproven running backs to gain yards on the ground.  I do think with more DBs playing a bit further off the line that the screen pass to Garcon will work again.  The Colts need big plays, but it will be hard to make them against a stingy defense.

The Bengals on the offensive side of the ball will expose the bad secondary once again.  Rookie A.J. Green will run slant routes all day and if he does that it doesn't matter how much pressure the line puts on rookie Andy Dalton.  He will get rid of it quicker due to the horrible coverage.

Because of all of that I'm going to predict a Colts loss for the first time all season.

Bengals 27 Colts 16