Mike Iupati will start this Sunday

Bengals will practice in Arizona on Saturday, then face the Cardinals at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sunday Night Football.

A matchup of two playoff teams and possible title contenders is the main story. Having Smith back should help pave the way for a Bengals ground game that’s been struggling and not improving with him sidelined. When Wilson has adequate time in pass protection (courtesy of great blocking from the left side of the line), he can successfully target isolated their receivers. On the record, I wont be surprised if the Rams end up winning because this match could honestly go either way.

Palmer forced his way out of the franchise back in 2011 and was eventually traded in the middle of the season, after he announced his retirement, which forced the Bengals to move him for what ended up being a first-round pick and a second-round pick from the Oakland Raiders.

With both teams coming off a bye ahead of their biggest game of the season, it was fair to expect a close battle early on. After laying an egg against the Texans on Monday, the Bengals are 4-8 in the Dalton era. No. We have five losses.

To be fair to Gresham, he did improve his blocking significantly during his final two years, but still had far too many issues that led to Cincy allowing him to become a free agent this offseason, with little-to-no interest from Cincinnati. Dalton and the team have to bounce back and prove that they are a different team this year and that this isn’t the same old Bengals who collapse in the winter months. I want to believe that the Cardinals learned from their first game together but since this is a road game I’m reluctant to give the Cardinals the W. “They got what they wanted, next guy up with Tyler (Eifert) and everything”. I regret it broke apart the way it did. The problem is that the Cardinals are an exponentially better offensive team than the Texans. He’s a 13-year veteran in the league.

– The Cards will likely be down one starting offensive lineman in right guard Jonathan Cooper, but I’d think Ted Larsen would start for him (Earl Watford is still possible.) They will have Mike Iupati at left guard. But, he is getting more action lately which was aided by Darren Fells missing a few time due to injury.

The Cardinals have great faith in their secondary, so they will take their chances playing a lot of man-to-man coverage. “We do not traditionally throw it to the tight ends”.

Yet as we have seen, this season has shattered any preconceived notions of who will win when it comes to favorites and underdogs but these Cardinals might just be the exception to this rule.

Iupati said he was scared when both arms went numb after a violent collision with the Seahawks’ Kam Chancellor in the second quarter of Arizona’s 39-32 victory.

The eight teams they have not beaten in Glendale are the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, NY Giants, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans. Defensive end Frostee Rucker was a prominent member of the Cincy defensive line from 2006-2011 after being drafted 91st overall out of USC in 2006. Though he only racked up seven sacks over 53 career games in the Queen City, Rucker’s impact was much more felt toward the end of his career once Mike Zimmer came in and better utilized him.

And that’s just one of the 171 plays Palmer had to master for a single game. “I don’t buy in to all the new technology – I’m archaic and I thought, ‘There is no way this can change the way I play quarterback.’ But I am all in on this”.