All Bengals Staff Makes Picks For Thursday Night Football Matchup Against Miami Dolphins

Cincinnati is hoping to improve to 2-2 on the season.

Author:
James Rapien
Updated:
Sep 29, 2022 8:28 AM EDT
Original:
Sep 29, 2022

In this story:

CINCINNATI — The Bengals host the Dolphins tonight on Thursday Night Football. It's their first primetime game of the 2022 season.

The Bengals are favored in the matchup, but they've also been the betting favorite in each of their first three games. Cincinnati enters with a 1-2 record. Miami is 3-0 and the only undefeated team remaining in the AFC.

Here are our staff picks for the Bengals' matchup against the Dolphins:

Elise Jesse, All Bengals Insider

Season Record: 1-2

Week 4 provides one of the most entertaining matchups of the week. The Miami Dolphins blew my expectations out of the water through three games by beating the Patriots, Ravens, and Bills. Tua Tagovailoa runs an efficient offense and Tyreek Hill does more than explode at the mic when Eli Apple is the topic of conversation. He seems to come up with big, explosive plays regularly. When I look at the stats from Miami’s first three wins, I see a team that didn’t give up, even when down 21 points to Baltimore. They also have a defense with a “bend, don’t break” mentality. Allowing the Bills to pack the stat sheet with 90 offensive snaps, 31 first downs and nearly 500 total yards of offense is just silly. The fact that Miami won that game in spite of the stats is even more mind blowing which tells me Cincinnati cannot let up for a second or they’ll be dead in the water.

The Bengals are coming off of their best game of the season where Joe Burrow looked like the one we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Lou Anarumo’s defense played fast and furious, and the offensive line kept their word and kept their quarterback upright for most of the game. If the offensive line can handle business against the Dolphins I’ll take that as a sign that they are well on their way to being the body guards we expected to see. The men up front will have to deal with defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah and edge rusher Melvin Ingram. The duo combined for 12 quarterback pressures, two sacks, a tackle for loss, and a fumble recovery in Week 3.

The Bengals ground game has been lackluster, I want to see Cincinnati find rhythm when running the ball tonight and I’m thinking they do en route to a primetime win.

Prediction: Bengals 24, Dolphins 20

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Russ Heltman, All Bengals Contributor

Season Record: 1-2

The primetime affair against Miami should be one of the more electric crowds in Bengals history. That will play a big role in lifting Cincinnati to win on a night where Burrow should go off.

The Dolphins defense ranks bottom-five in passing EPA (0.195, 28th) and success rate allowed (55%, 30th). They just faced a ton of coverage snaps against Buffalo—and they blitz at the 13th-highest rate in the league (25.5%). Yet, they rank 29th in pressure rate (15.3%) this season. That's a death knell against the blitz destroyer himself (Burrow).

Prediction: Bengals 30, Dolphins 27

Nicole Zembrodt, All Bengals Contributor

Season Record: 1-2

The Dolphins are the AFC's only undefeated team, but they're coming off two-straight emotional wins with a number of their key players showing up on the injury report this week. This has the makings of an offensive shootout. It will come down to which defense comes up with the key turnover or stop. Evan McPherson's leg will be the difference maker in this one. The Bengals drop Miami from the unbeaten ranks to pick up their second-straight win.

Prediction: Bengals 27, Dolphins 24

Blake Jewell, All Bengals Contributor

Season Record: 1-2

As bad as the Bengals started this season, there are plenty of reasons to believe they should win this game. The Dolphins are banged up and worn out after their hard fought win over the Bills just four days ago. The team elected to travel early Wednesday morning due to the hurricane hitting Florida, which means they are very limited on preparation since they haven't had a real practice this week.

On the Bengals side, their offense looked much better last week and if they carry that over to Thursday, they’ll be in a great position to win. The biggest problem for Cincinnati will be playing without DJ Reader, who is out for at least a month.

Overall, I think the Bengals are more fresh and prepared than the Dolphins, and it’ll show on Thursday. They take an early lead and pull away in the fourth quarter.

Prediction: Bengals 33, Dolphins 21

Mike Santagata, All Bengals Film Analyst

Season Record: 1-2

The Bengals have finally found themselves in the win column!

With a wire-to-wire dominating victory over the New York Jets, it seems as if they may be back to their 2021 form, but the Dolphins are red hot at 3-0 coming into this game.

A lot of this game could come down to injury with the health of Tagavailoa, who's dealing with ankle and back injuries.

If the Bengals can pressure him and find a way to make up for the loss of DJ Reader, then they could win. However, with Tua expected to play, I think the Dolphins are able to eek out a small victory over the Bengals.

Prediction: Dolphins 24, Bengals 21

Lindsay Patterson, All Bengals Reporter

Season Record: 1-2

It's a short week and one of the hottest teams in the AFC is coming to town. With the Bengals coming off the first win of the season and gaining some confidence back it should be a good match up with the undefeated Dolphins. Not great news this week with DJ Reader out for an extended time and yes that hurts the defense, especially with Miami's playmakers on offense. Some would look at both offenses and think it would be a shootout, but I think it's going to be close and I think we will see more of the 2021 Burrow on Thursday night. I like this defense and trust Anarumo. Also, it should be an interesting second half—Miami is a 4th quarter team and the Bengals defense doesn’t give up touchdowns in the final two quarters.

Prediction: Bengals 24, Dolphins 21

Andrew Miller, All Bengals Video Editor

Season Record: 1-2

The Dolphins are coming off of an exciting win against the Bills and traveling to Cincinnati on a short week. Tagovailoa is banged up. Meanwhile, Burrow and Cincinnati's offense is finding a rhythm. Assuming the Bengals' defense gets after the quarterback and limits big plays from their dynamic wide receivers, I expect this to be a primetime win for Cincinnati.

Prediction: Bengals 24, Dolphins 20

James Yarcho, All Bengals Contributor

Season Record: 1-2

The Bengals will continue to improve after an ugly start, but the Miami Dolphins are surprisingly for real. With Hill and Waddle complimenting each other, there will be some explosive plays made that prove to be the tipping point in this one.

Prediction: Dolphins 27, Bengals 20

James Rapien, All Bengals Publisher

Season Record: 1-2

The Bengals are the more desperate team, they're at home on a short week and they play their most complete game of the season in a tight one.

Look for Burrow and Chase to get going early with McPherson kicking the game winner late in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati beats Miami to improve to 2-2.

Prediction: Bengals 30, Dolphins 27

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