Three Reasons Why Packers Will Beat Bengals

“That was huge,” Love said. “I think that was a real positive note for us on offense. Was able to, obviously, back against the wall in some of those situations, you’ve got to go down there and put up points to stay in that game, and I think we did that. We answered the call.

“Obviously, I think at the end there, we want to end that thing with a touchdown instead of ending it with a tie, but I think offensively we did a great job of just keeping us in that game, going down and answering the call every time. There’s been situations where we haven’t done that in the past. It’s nice to improve on some of those situations and just situationally awareness. It’s good stuff because you keep building on it. Those situations are going to come up again, so we’ve got to keep going out there and performing.”

With momentum, the Packers will face one of the worst defenses in the NFL. The Bengals are 30th in points allowed and 30th in total defense. Only the Ravens have given up more touchdown passes than the Bengals (12), who are 25th in yards allowed per passing attempt.

The last three games, the Vikings’ Carson Wentz had a 129.8 passer rating, the Broncos’ Bo Nix had a 97.9 rating (but 326 yards) and the Lions’ Jared Goff had a 153.0 passer rating and almost as many touchdown passes (three) as incompletions (four).

With the Bengals’ struggles, Love has a green light to continue his red-hot start. He entered Week 6 ranked fourth in the NFL in passer rating. While he had a critical interception at Cleveland and a game-changing fumble at Dallas, the good has far outweighed the bad.

“I would agree with that completely,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “You’ve seen some really great things from him, couple of bad turnovers but, other than that, he’s played really well. So, excited to watch him improve as the year unfolds. I just think he’s just going to keep getting better as the season goes on.”

Flustering Joe Flacco

Trading for Joe Flacco was the right move for the Bengals. Whether it’ll work or not remains to be seen, but it was clear that their season was sunk with interception machine Jake Browning starting for Joe Burrow.

Flacco, however, was terrible with the Browns. Of 32 qualifying quarterbacks, he was 32nd in rating, 31st in completion percentage, 32nd in yards per attempt, 31st in touchdown percentage, 30th in interception percentage and 29th in air yards per completion.

To be sure, Flacco inherited superior weapons, with All-Pro Ja’Marr Chase and contested-catch specialist Tee Higgins forming one of the best tandems in the NFL. However, while his skill-position supporting cast was an upgrade, his offensive line was a downgrade.

Cincinnati has the worst offensive line in the league, . Combined with the 40-year-old Flacco’s lack of mobility, the defense could have a chance to tee off. Only three tackles have allowed more pressures than left tackle Orlando Brown. Only two guards have allowed more pressures than rookie left guard Dylan Fairchild. Only two centers have allowed more pressures than Ted Karras.

On the edges, Micah Parsons has been an electric addition and Rashan Gary ranks among the league leaders in sacks. And while defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt will be missed, defensive tackle Karl Brooks and defensive end Lukas Van Ness, who plays a lot of tackle in passing situations, are off to strong starts.

The defense will enter this game hungry to put the debacle at Dallas behind it.

“I think we’re very close,” Parsons said. “It’s just the little things. It’s the details. Not giving up the easy ones, continuing to get after the quarterback, running to the ball. That’s contagious. How we showed them statements the first couple weeks, I told the guys today, it’s like be phenomenal or be forgotten.

“No one thinks about good defenses. No one talks about good defenses. We’ve seen a lot of good defenses. Eleven, 12 weeks of the year, they’re pretty good. But those other weeks, what did they look like? You think about those great defenses – the Ravens, Denver, Chicago still get brought up because of what they did consistent for 17 weeks. We got to be great. We got to be great every week.”

Situational Dominance

Success on third downs and in the red zone leads to success. The Packers have been dominant on third down. Offensively, they have one of the best conversion rates in NFL history. Defensively, they have been excellent, as well, leading to the best third-down differential in the league.

Here’s the tale of the tape, with Green Bay having huge advantages on third down and in the red zone on offense and on third down on defense.

Packers on offense: 53.7 percent conversions on third down (first), 66.7 percent touchdowns in the red zone (11th). Bengals on defense: 46.0 percent conversions on third down (29th), 70.8 percent conversions in red zone (28th).

“Third down comes through multi facets of the game,” tight end Tucker Kraft said. “This is a squad that’s locked in, hungry to fight through contact every single week and make plays down the field. That’s what it’s come down to, and J-Love just being on the spot.”

Packers on defense: 32.7 percent on third down (fourth), 60.0 percent touchdowns in red zone (17th). Bengals on offense: 36.1 percent conversions on third down (25th), 72.7 percent touchdowns in the red zone (fourth).

“On the third downs, it’s a credit to our players,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said. “It’s the rush plus the coverage. We’ve been getting pressure on the quarterback, we’ve been aggressive in coverage, we’ve been aggressive and played man coverage in certain games where we thought we could and gotten off the field, we’ve simulated, we’ve disguised and played zones.

“We’ve thrown a lot at people but, ultimately, it’s the guys out on the field really executing well on third down, and we’re going to need to continue to do that.”

So long as the Packers take care of the football, they should be in good shape to improve to 3-0 at home.