The third week of the NFL season has some interesting matchup ahead, with one of the best being the early afternoon game between the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals, as both teams are 1-1 and could put up some fireworks on offense.
The Packers are coming off of a dominating win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday that saw the team take a 24-0 lead into halftime, while the Bengals are feeling good after taking down their AFC North rival in the Steelers on Monday night football and now they will have their second straight home game. The Bengals looked much better on offense on Monday and while their defense was solid as well, they will have to play their A-game against the Packers.
Green Bay lost in the opening week to San Fran, but now they appear to be clicking on offense after dropping some major yards on the Redskins. Aaron Rodgers won yet another offensive player of the week award after tossing almost 500 yards to go along with four touchdowns in the win over the Redskins and the biggest matchup of the day might be Rodgers and the Packers receivers against the secondary of the Bengals. Over the past couple years the Bengals have been strong in the back end, but they will have their hands full with Jordy Nelson, James Jones and the always electric Randall Cobb.
The Packers appear not to have lost a step since letting Greg Jennings go, as Randall Cobb is leading the team with 15 catches for over 230 yards and two touchdowns, while Jones and Nelson have also been producing. The team is ranked second in the league in passing yards per game, while Jones is averaging over 16 yards per catch and has 11 receptions for over 170 yards, while Nelson has found the end zone four times already while racking up 200 yards receiving on 10 catches. The team has enough weapons to spread the ball around and with Jermichael Finley also on the offense and James Starks emerging from the backfield, the Bengals could be in for a long day.
On the flip side, Cincy is no slouch on offense either, as they have a ton of skill players that could breakout on Sunday, including Andy Dalton, Giovani Bernard, AJ Green as well as tight ends Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert, who has made an impression already as a rookie. Bernard scored two touchdowns on Monday night and has started to come on in the running game, while Green has been putting up some great numbers in two games, making 15 catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns.
The Packers defense has not been great against the pass so far this season, but part of that is the fact that the Redskins aired the ball out on Sunday to try and get back into the game. The team is giving up over 350 yards per game in the passing defense, but it likely will go down, especially if the team locks down Green. The matchups that will be most interesting includes Rodgers and the secondary as well as the Cincy tight ends against the Packers linebackers.