The Minnesota Vikings are out of the playoffs race this season after making it last year and now they have the chance to play spoiler against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16 and the matchup will be on FOX at 1 pm and will be at Paul Brown Stadium and the game will be streaming online form the NFL.com main website.
The Bengals have been up and down over the second half of the season and while they are in position to make the playoffs, the team needs to finish strong and now they will host the Vikings, who can play some spoiler and they did that last week by beating the Eagles. The Vikings put up nearly 50 points with Matt Cassel at the helm and even with Adrian Peterson out, the team was able to get by the Eagles and while they gave up over 400 passing yards to Nick Foles, the team got the victory and now they will play for their jobs on Sunday against the Bengals on the road and AP is expected to be back in the lineup. The team comes into the season ranked in the top 10 in rushing yards per game and they are giving up nearly 300 passing yards on defense, ranked 30th in the league. The team has won two of three games and has only lost once in the past four with the Ravens game and the tie with the Packers and for Week 17 the team plays the Detroit Lions and that could have implications for the NFC North.
Check here for the Vikings and Bengals live coverage.
The Bengals are coming off of a tough loss to the Steelers on the road last week and they have a huge game against the Baltimore Ravens to finish off the season and that could have huge playoff implications, especially if the team loses on Sunday. The offense has been solid and the defense has been great, ranking in the top 10 in both passing and rushing yards allowed per game and the team is allowing just 98 yards on the ground and that defense will have to come through against the Vikings and Peterson on Sunday.
The team got 230 yards last week from Andy Dalton and nearly 100 yards from AJ Green and now the team needs to win to get back on track and they had won three straight before falling to the Steelers and that came after two overtime losses that were sandwiched in between two streaks, including a four game winning streak before that. The Bengals have the chance to make some noise in the playoffs this season and they play at home in the final two games against the Vikings and then against the Baltimore Ravens and that game in Week 17 on the schedule could end up being for the AFC North and could knock one of those teams into the wild card or even out of the playoffs all together and both teams made the playoffs last season.