NFL Week 11 Picks: Eagles @ Bengals

Philadelphia Eagles @ Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, Nov. 16 - 1:00 PM

The 1-8 Bengals are in the midst of a season that can be considered terrible at best, yet their only win came against the Jaguars week nine before their bye. Are they about to post a monster turnaround, or was their win just a fluke?

The Eagles are tied for last place in the NFC East with a 5-4 overall record - proving that the NFC East really is the toughest division right now. Will they continue domination of their non-division games (their only non-division loss came against the Bears in their first game without Brian Westbrook), or will they show the rest of the NFL that the powerhouse division is actually the NFC South?

The Eagles have not had Brian Westbrook at 100% since they lost him Week 3 against the Steelers, and it's possible that he will come back in full force this week. In his absence, though, Correll Buckhalter has done a good job, and Donovan McNabb has shown the world that he's still a good QB when he's not injured.

Rookie WR DeSean Jackson has proven to be a great pickup for the Eagles this year—he has led the team in receiving yards five times this year and has been a very valuable asset in the Wildcat formation (he picked up a rushing TD against the Giants Week 10).

The Bengals starting QB Carson Palmer has only played in four games this year due to injury, and it's not looking like he's going to play this week either. This has given backup QB Ryan Fitzpatrick a chance to prove himself, but so far he has not looked particularly promising (4 TDs and 6 INTs).

This has hurt the stat sheets for WRs T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson (he doesn't change his name on his jersey until next year, so I figure I have until then too), with no WR going over 85 yards since Fitzpatrick has been the starter.

The Bengals running game has not been any better—they picked up Cedric Benson Week Five and he is now starting over Chris Perry, but has only accumulated 241 yards and 1 TD so far this year. The good news for the Bengals, however, is that Benson's sole TD came in their only win, when he happened to also accumulate 104 rushing yards.

Let's take a look at how the two teams match up:

Points Per Game
Eagles Offense vs. Bengals Defense - 27.9 (4th) vs. 26.2 (26th)
Bengals Offense vs. Eagles Defense - 13.9 (31st) vs. 20.0 (10th)

Rush Yards Per Game
Eagles Offense vs. Bengals Defense - 98.3 (22nd) vs. 138.1 (25th)
Bengals Offense vs. Eagles Defense - 86.8 (30th) vs. 103.4 (14th)

Pass Yards Per Game
Eagles Offense vs. Bengals Defense - 262.4 (5th) vs. 193.7 (10th)
Bengals Offense vs. Eagles Defense - 151.4 (30th) vs. 190.4 (6th)

Total Yards Per Game
Eagles Offense vs. Bengals Defense - 360.8 (7th) vs. 331.8 (20th)
Bengals Offense vs. Eagles Defense - 238.2 (32nd) vs. 293.9 (9th)

The Bengals offense is terrible right now—last in total yards per game, second to last in points per game, and third to last in rush and pass yards per game. Their defense ranks in the 20s for most stats, which is not going to save them.

The Eagles rank in the single digits in every category except rush yards per game, and this is only because Westbrook has been injured for a majority of this season. With Westbrook back and hopefully at 100%, the Eagles rush game is going to greatly improve this week against a sloppy Bengals D.

Look for the NFC East to reinforce its status as the toughest division.

I have the Eagles beating the Bengals.