Cedric Benson Suspension: Bengals Will Crush Seahawks While Star RB Sits

Cedric Benson or no, the Cincinnati Bengals won't have too much trouble dispatching the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

According to ESPN's Andrew Brandt, Benson will sit out against the Seahawks now that his latest appeal against an NFL-imposed suspension has been rejected. Benson filed a non-injury grievance in the courts against the league but was turned town by an arbitrator, who ruled that she did not have jurisdiction over this particular case.

The NFL had originally hit Benson with a three-game suspension for violating the league's personal conduct policy for an arrest on misdemeanor charges in Texas back in July. The penalty was reduced to one game, with an additional fine of one week's pay, after a direct appeal. Benson's lawyer contended that the running back was not subject to the league's policy at the time, as it occurred in the midst of the NFL lockout.

Benson has been a key cog in the Bengals' surprising machinery this season. He's rushed for 458 yards and two touchdowns on 117 carries through the team's first six games while taking the pressure off rookie quarterback Andy Dalton to shoulder the load from week to week. Bernard Scott, who's accounted for 85 yards and a touchdown on 30 attempts this season, will absorb most of Cincy's carries in Benson's absence.

Benson could hardly have "picked" a better time to serve his suspension. The Bengals won't need to score all that much to fend off a Seahawks squad that managed just 137 total yards in a 6-3 loss to another AFC North team, the Cleveland Browns, in Week 7.

That, of course, was without Marshawn Lynch and Tarvaris Jackson. Both could be back in time for Sunday's game, with Lynch listed as probable and Jackson as questionable on the Seahawks' injury report.

Even so, Seattle will be hard-pressed to move the ball against the NFL's second-stingiest defense. The Bengals will need only to produce enough on offense to allow their D to play aggressively and put up a touchdown or two along the way.

With Dalton under center and Scott running the rock behind him, Cincy should be able to do just that to move to 5-2 and no worse for Benson's latest debacle.