The Tennessee Titans will be facing off against the Cincinnati Bengals in a huge Divisional Playoff game on Sunday. The Bengals got to this position by posting their first playoff appearance in six seasons. In the playoffs, they had a matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders and the Bengals disposed of them by seven points, 26-19. They will be meeting the Titans, who have dominated this season. Most analysts out there have the Titans as winners, as they have been great this season, while the Bengals had some up and down moments. Still, the Bengals do have a living shot to make a deeper run in the postseason. With their meeting coming up on Sunday night, here are 2 reasons why the Bengals will eliminate the Titans.

Bengals eliminating the Titans

Passing prowess of Joe Burrow 

Joe Burrow linking up with Ja'Marr Chase has been the story of the Bengals season. The duo has been amazing this year, with Chase earning Pro Bowl and AP All-Pro honors. In their game versus the Las Vegas Raiders, Burrow threw for 24 completions in 34 attempts, without any interceptions and connecting on two touchdowns. His passing has brought the Bengals 244 yards in that game, and he was only sacked twice. His rushing was not particularly good, but his passing has been great.

Overall, the Bengals QB has been great this season. In terms of passing yards, Joe Burrow was sixth in the league, ahead of guys like Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, and Jimmy Garoppolo, among others. He has been tremendously helped by the incredible season Chas is having. the former LSU star had 1455 receiving yards on just 81 receptions, which is incredible. With those numbers, he broke the Bengals franchise record. If they are able to link once again, the Titans defense, despite how elite it is, will have no answers to this duo.

However, it was not just Chase linking with Burrow. The Bengals were the only team in the NFL this season that had three players with more than 800 receiving yards. Other than the historic 1,455 yards of Chase, wide receivers Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd added 1,091 and 828, respectively. Both were active against the Raiders but had slower games. Boyd had 26 receiving yards, connecting on four out of the five passes sent his way. Higgins had only 10 yards, connecting on one pass out of four. If they can wake up, the Bengals might have a fighting shot to eliminate the favored Titans.

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Titans defense was poor against pass-heavy offenses 

It will be tough to go through the defense of the Titans. The Titans got to the first seed in AFC North by having a great defense that was ranked sixth in the whole league. They only allowed 15.2 points per game, which could prove as an issue to the Bengals offense, even though they had the seventh-best offense in the regular season. Still, the thing to look out for is the fact that the Titans are elite against rushing offenses, being in the top ten of rushing yards, attempts, and touchdowns allowed.

However, one look at the Bengals rushing offense will state that they prefer other ways of attacking. Firstly, in the regular season, the Bengals had only 436 rushing attempts and 1742 rushing yards, good enough for 19th and 23rd in the league, respectively. On the other hand, they were seventh in passing yards and touchdowns, and they had a top-half finish in interceptions allowed, where they were 14th.

In that regard, the Titans are the ones who should worry. Their defensive stats against pass-first offenses are problematic, to say the least, especially when it is taken into consideration that they have an opponent with a great QB and three in-form wide receivers. They are 30th in passing attempts allowed and 25th in passing yards allowed. The good sign is that they have not allowed many passing touchdowns and were able to intercept 16 passes this season, which are top ten numbers in the league in both regards. The Bengals will need to exploit this to the maximum, and they might have a chance against the favored squad from Tennessee.

The key for the Titans will be their safety, Kevin Byard. The two-time Pro Bowler and the two-time AP All-Pro player has been doing great this season, with five interceptions in seventeen played games. He averages 1.0 sacks per game and he will be the player which the offense of the Bengals should most fear. Still, even with the incredible form of Byard, the Bengals passing talent should be enough to get them over the top and right into the AFC Title Game.