Bengals running back Cedric Benson has been a big key to the team’s success this season, as the Bengals have finally found their running game. Benson has been a work horse on the ground, and no one has run the ball more than him throughout the whole season.

Last week the Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers without the help of Benson after he injured his hip abductor early on in the game. The Bengals won with stellar defense and a great kickoff return from Bernard Scott.

After going out and acquiring Larry Johnson and with the Bengals playing a team that they will most likely beat should the Bengals rest Benson?

Unless Benson is 100 percent ready to go for the game I do not think that the Bengals should dress him because of what he means to this football team. They have a young Bernard Scott that can take the load for this game and now Larry Johnson.

You do not want Benson going out against a team that you can beat if you play disciplined football, and hurt him more and have him out against some big games coming up.

Oakland is 29^th in the league defensively at stopping the run, and 14^th against the pass. The run is their weakness and this could be a game you want your young back and the new addition to start getting their feet wet and confidence boosted.

This is not an automatic win for the Bengals and after a big win it’s easy to let your guard down against a lesser opponent, but I don’t see them losing this game if they continue to play they way they have been the past couple weeks.

The Bengals are now the fourth best team in the NFL and have the third weakest schedule from here on out, they can certainly run the table with a minimum of one loss if any at all.

Their next three opponents all have a total of four wins between them and the next challenging game they have in at Minnesota December 13^th. They can put a choke hold on the AFC North winning the next three games, and a loss to Minnesota, San Diego, or the New York Jets won’t kill them.

They will need Benson for the last quarter of the season so they need to get him as much rest as he can carry the load for them at the end of the season.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 11:48 am and is filed under News Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.