Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans Matchup Preview (1/22/22): Betting Odds, Depth Charts, Live Stream (Watch Online)

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Matchup Preview (1/22/22)

The Bengals survive – and advance. They head to Tennessee to take on the Titans in the divisional round of the playoffs. If you weren’t a Joe Burrow fan at the beginning of the year, I hope you are one now. He has proved himself to be the franchise quarterback that he set out to be over the last few weeks and last week’s win over the Raiders solidified that. In his first ever playoff game, he led the Bengals to a 26-19 win over Las Vegas – their first playoff win in 31 years. The Titans are well-rested having had a first-round bye which gave them extra time to get Derrick Henry ready. He is expected to make a return this week after suffering an injury in week 8 that sidelined him for the rest of the regular season. With him back in the picture, their run game becomes much more of an imminent threat that will surely cause problems for a Bengals run defense that suffered several injuries last week against the Raiders. The Titans however, have a lethal passing offense to take care of if they want to win this game. Either way, this should be a competitive game.

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans Betting Odds

The Titans are the 3.5-point favorite in this game and the over/under is 46.5. There are a lot of striking similarities in these teams’ performances. Both teams have won four of their last five games, contributing to the Bengals’ 11-7 overall record and the Titans’ 12-5 record; they have done well as the road underdog and as the home favorite, respectively. This hot Bengals team has covered in their last five games, adding to their 11-7 record ATS and their 4-1 record ATS when they are the away underdog. The Titans have covered in three of their last five games, which includes just a 3-point win over the Houston Texans and a loss to the Steelers. Still, they’re 10-7 ATS overall and 2-0 ATS when they have the rest advantage, which bodes well for them after their first-round bye. Neither team has been overwhelmingly good at hitting over their point total this year, each boasting an 8-9 over record. The majority of the times that they did hit the over, it was when they were playing non-playoff teams, so the under might be the better pick this week. 

While the status of Derrick Henry is important in the competitiveness of this game, I don’t see him being the same machine he was before he got hurt, considering how much time and practice he’s lost. On the other hand, if Joe Burrow’s last three games have been any indication that he will go off in this game again, then I’ll take him to lead the Bengals to an upset win.

My predictions: Bengals win 24-21, Bengals cover, under 46.5

TV Schedule

Date: Saturday, January 22
Time: 4:30 PM ET
Location: Nissan Stadium – Nashville, TN
TV Coverage: CBS

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans Live Stream

Where can you watch Bengals vs. Titans online? You can stream this game, and many other NFL games live online with Hulu. Hulu has a 7 Day free trial and is cheaper than cable options at $5.99/month. Watch Bengals vs. Titans Free Online Now.

Cincinnati Bengals Analysis

Joe Burrow. That’s it. That’s the game plan. The second-year quarterback has thrown for 1,215 yards, 10 touchdowns, and zero interceptions… in his last three games. In the wild card showdown against Las Vegas last week, he had his least impressive performance of the three games and he still threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns with a 70.6% completion rate. He’s completed 76% of his passes in these last three showings despite being sacked nine times, contributing to the 53 sacks his offensive line has allowed on him this year (including playoffs).

Those kinds of numbers don’t come on his own though, they come with the help of former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase who’s been his main target this year. This is arguably the best quarterback-wide receiver combination left in the playoffs and will prove to be a very difficult job for a struggling Titans secondary. Last week against the Raiders he had 9 catches for 116 yards and tallied another 23 on the run for this offense. In their win against the Chiefs in week 17, Chase broke the NFL record for most receiving yards by a rookie in a single game with 266 yards and three touchdowns. One game into the playoffs, he’s now broken the NFL record for receiving yards by a rookie in a single season (including playoff games). 

Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd are his other deep threats when he can’t find Chase and should expect to see action this week as the Titans will likely have Chase in double coverage. Joe Mixon has proved effective on the run for this team but likely won’t see a ton of action this week given Tennessee’s strong run defense.

This defense has been solid against the run most of the season, averaging 102.5 rushing yards against them per game, but have faltered as of late. They gave up double that in their loss against Cleveland and 155 yards on the run the week before against the Chiefs. Even if Derrick Henry is at half his normal strength, that won’t fly if they want a win. It doesn’t help their case that starting defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi is out indefinitely and Trey Hendrickson and Josh Tupou are also dealing with injuries. Their pass defense has been underperforming all year long, allowing the seventh-most pass yards against them in the regular season and the third most passes per game. Realistically, the Titans could exploit either side of this defense if these trends continue.

Cincinnati Bengals Depth Chart

QB: Joe Burrow
RB1: Joe Mixon
RB2: Samaje Perine
WR1: Ja’Marr Chase
WR2: Tee Higgins
WR3: Tyler Boyd
TE1: C.J. Uzomah
TE2: Drew Sample

Tennessee Titans Analysis

The big question going into this game is whether the long-awaited return of Derrick Henry is finally going to happen. He’s been practicing this week which is surely giving Tennessee lots of confidence heading into this game. Still, he’s been out for nearly 10 weeks and I would be surprised if he had a pre-injury-like performance right out of the gate. Despite missing two months of football, he still finished with 937 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. In his absence, D’Onta Foreman has emerged as their RB1, tallying 566 yards and three touchdowns. Certainly not Henry-like numbers, but it’s been enough to sustain them, and help them to the No. 1 seed. 

Depending on the performance of Henry, will likely determine the performance of veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehll. If Henry comes out of the gate hot, then they’ll likely keep feeding him the ball, if not, Tannehill will be forced to go long and find his biggest target, A.J. Brown. This team definitely has less confidence in the air than they do on the ground where they average 141.4 yards, but Tannehill in the playoffs can definitely be counted on. Either way, his offensive line needs to help him a lot more than they have this season – they’ve allowed 47 sacks on the guy. 

This is the best run defense in the playoffs, which gives the Bengals all the more reason to throw the ball. They give up the second-fewest rushes per game (21.6) and rushing yards per game (84.6). But they gave up the eighth-most pass yards in the regular season (245.2) which is just bad news against a hot Burrow-Chase combination. Still, they’ve made improvements down the stretch – this is a team that went from allowing 384 total yards and 27 points per game in weeks 1-6, to allowing 300 total yards and 17.5 points per game, in its last 11 games.

Tennessee Titans Depth Chart

QB: Ryan Tannehill
RB1: Derrick Henry
RB2: D’Onta Foreman
WR1: AJ Brown
WR3: Julio Jones
WR3: Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
TE1: Geoff Swaim