Injuries have hit the Cincinnati Bengals, including the kicker position. And the long season has people wondering if the Bengals will retain Zac Taylor. It’s a fairly insignificant Monday night battle, with a Cincinnati Bengals Week 14 game scheduled against the Dallas Cowboys. Ahead of the Bengals-Cowboys game, we’ll be making our Bengals Week 14 predictions.

The Bengals enter with a record of 4-8. A lot of the blame has fallen upon Taylor and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. Taylor took the brunt of it himself in the loss to the Steelers, according to espn.com.

“I’m not going to sit here and put this on the players,” Taylor said. “As the head coach, you sit there and you’re 4-8. You’re a 4-8 head coach. And that starts with you. To get the most out of everybody, that’s my job.”

But Anarumo wanted some blame, too.

“Obviously all of this starts and ends with me,” Anarumo said. “How we play is certainly my responsibility. I think the players have done a fantastic job of preparing, practicing with energy, giving us their best. I’m proud of the way we’ve gone about that. We need to do a better job. I need to do a better job of making sure it shows up on Sundays.”

Bengals QB Joe Burrow will throw three TD passes

Dallas can get pressure on the quarterback, but they can also get dinged for big-yardage plays. Look for it to be a feast-or-famine type of game for Burrow.

Cowboys’ edge rusher Micah Parsons showed respect for Burrow, according to a post on X by Todd Archer.

“I gotta do my job at an extremely high level,” Parsons said. “I gotta be the best player on the field. If Joe Burrow’s record is the opposite, he’ll be the leading runner for MVP, you know what I’m saying? I still think he should be the MVP. I mean, he’s leading the league in passing yards, passing touchdowns.

“The year he’s having, it’s like Joe Burrow at LSU. I think that’s what a healthy Joe Burrow looks like. So in terms of we got our hands tied on one of the best offenses in the NFL and we’ve been playing like a really good defense, but we gotta prove that on Monday night, and this is gonna be, I think, the greatest challenge of them all.”

Indeed, Burrow numbers are exactly how Parsons described him. He has thrown for 3,337 yards through the air with 30 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

And he’s done that despite taking some hits that his coach doesn’t think fit into the boundaries of fair play, according to espn.com.

“I’ve got to fight harder for Joe to get some of that,” Taylor said. “Because he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t want to disrupt from his flow in the game, but that’s just things I got to talk with him about.”

However, Burrow said he just deals with it.

“I feel like I have never gotten those calls,” Burrow said. “So I don’t really expect that. I feel like there were a couple that were close. Again, I don’t expect those.”

Chase Brown will get a rushing and receiving score

It has been a solid season for Brown, who has 677 yards rushing with six touchdowns. As a receiver, Brown has 38 catches for 237 yards and two more scores.

Furthermore, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said the Bengals’ offense is dangerous, according to kdhnews.com.

“When your offense is rolling, it puts a different level of stress on the defense,” McCarthy said. “The thing that we’re seeing is that they throw a lot at you. This is a very good football team. I would never think that their record illustrates what we see on video.”

Tee Higgins will reel in a touchdown reception

Playing in only seven of the Bengals 12 games, Higgins has 43 catches for 558 yards and five touchdowns. Those numbers rival what he put up in 12 games in 2023. Taylor said Higgins has stepped up his game this year, according to Sports Illustrated.

“He’s had some really physical plays so far,” Taylor said. “I think this year he’s playing as well as he’s ever played. To continue to find ways to get him opportunities. We’ve got a lot of good players, you’re trying to get them all touches. But when he gets his, he certainly has made people pay for it and really excited about how he’s playing right now.”

Before the season, director of player personnel Duke Tobin talked about the importance of Higgins to the team, according to nfl.com.

“It’s really simple: He’s a good player, we want to keep him,” Tobin said. “And we have resources to do that, so we decided early to do it. And that’s where we are. We like Tee. We’re a better team with Tee. With the way we managed our cap, we had the ability to put the franchise tag on him, and we did.”

Mike Geisicki will catch a TD pass

it has been a few weeks since Gesicki scored his only two touchdowns of the season, but he will find a way back into paydirt against the Cowboys.

After the game, Taylor said Gesicki can be depended upon for consistent production, according to apnews.com.

“Gesicki is a guy we’ve been able to lean on,” Taylor said. “There was a lull there in the season where he doesn’t get a lot of targets. That’s just the way this offense goes sometimes. Joe does a great job dispersing it to wherever the concept’s calling for. Mike has done an excellent job capitalizing on his opportunities.”

Burrow agreed, saying, “Mike is going to continue to make plays. He just continues to get open in zone, win first man, make big -time catches, contested catches. He continues to show why I have so much trust in him. His role is going to continue to increase.”