This should be an exciting football game.   The Bengals gave up 49 points in a devastating loss to the Chargers and the Saints gave up 38 points on the road in Pittsburgh last week.  Both teams need this game badly!  The Saints need the win to stay in first place (6-3), while the Bengals need the win to stay alive in the playoff race as they are only 4-5 on the season.

Look for the Bengals to run a wide-open offense, but to run the ball early and get Rudi Johnson involved in the gameplan.  Willie Parker rushed for over 200 yards last week against the Saints and Rudi Johnson is a better back than he is.  Look for Carson Palmer to keep playing catch with his two top receivers, Chad Johnson (51 rec, 742 yards) and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (46 rec, 576 yards) as the Saints secondary has been getting torched as of late.  Opposing QBs have 17 TDs and only 4 INTs against the Saints.  The Saints must blitz Palmer or he will carve their defense up.

Look for the Saints to also run a wide-open attack.  They might try to run the ball a little more than usual to attempt to keep the Bengals offense off of the field.  The Bengals are soft against the run, allowing 126.8 yards rushing and 4.3 yards per carry.  But the Saints will certainly attack the Bengals down the field, with Brees taking shots to the soon-to-be offensive rookie of the year Marques Colston.  All Colston has done this year is catch 54 passes for 869 yards and 7 TDs.  Colston is a mis-match for any Bengal DB because of his rare blend of size and speed.

Buckle the seat belts kiddies.  This will be an exciting football game, just like each of them played in last week.   The only difference is that one of them will win this week, and I think it will be whoever has the ball last.