The Bengals were without one of their hottest players when wide receiver Tee Higgins was declared out of Sunday's game against the Eagles at Paycor Stadium.
After grabbing 159 yards on 11 catches in his last two games, Higgins surfaced as limited on Friday's injury report with a quadricep issue. On Sunday morning he was listed as one of their five inactives.
Since he has returned to the lineup following a hamstring injury in the Thursday practice before the opener wiped out his first two games of the season, Higgins averages 68 yards per game and has three touchdown catches.
Last week in Cleveland, he finished the scoring on a 25-yard touchdown off a slant on third-and-four to cap off an 82-yard day.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, 3-4 without Higgins, found weapons early this season when he was out. Tight end Mike Gesicki had seven catches for 91 in Kansas City, where wide receiver Andrei Iosivas had two red-zone touchdown catches.
BROTHERLY SHOVE
It really is a game of brotherly shove Sunday not even taking into account twins Chase (Bengals) and Sydney (Eagles) Brown.
There is former Bengals backup left tackle Fred Johnson drawing a start for the Eagles against the NFL's hottest sacker, Trey Hendrickson. Two of the best players out of the University of Toledo, Bengals special teams ace Tycen Anderson and Eagles starting cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, return to Ohio to meet. Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, both Staten Island natives, bring a slice of the Big Apple of the banks of the Ohio.
And there is Eagles kicker Jake Elliott, a fifth-round pick of the Bengals in 2017 returning for the game he never got to play at Paycor. Elliott lost a training camp battle that year to Randy Bullock, but has been the kicker in Philly ever since and become one of the league's most consistent kickers.
From 2017-2020, Bullock had a field-goal percentage of 85% while Elliott was at 82.2. Then in 2021, the Bengals came back to the fifth round select Evan McPherson, who has had the greatest start to a career of a kicker in franchise history.
While Elliott had the two longest field goals by a rookie to help the Eagles win a Super Bowl, McPherson kicked the Bengals into a Super Bowl with two walk-offs in the playoffs and hasn't had a miss in 19 postseason field-goal attempts. While Elliott came into this season tied for the second-highest field percentage (90.9%) since 2021, McPherson has the third most 50-yarders since the start of 2021.
It shapes up for an intriguing kicking derby Sunday of Bengals' fifth-rounders.
SLANTS AND SCREENS
Also inactive for the Bengals is rookie safety Daijahn Anthony for the first time this year …
Also out were three others who have been usually inactive: edge Cedric Johnson, tight end Tanner McLachlan, defensive tackle Jay Tufele…
With Anthony down, defensive tackle Lawrence Guy is up as the Bengals play running back Saquon Barkley for the first time …
The game is nearly 15 years to the day (10/25/09) Bengals running back Cedric Benson set the record for most yards against his old team when he went for 189 against the Bears at Paycor. Barkley came close last week against the Giants with 176 ...
Nice touch by the coaches. They sent out Chase and Sydney as one of their captains and they hugged before the coin toss.
And then there is the real "Brotherly Shove,' otherwise known as "The Push Tush," that controversial rugby scrum of a short-yardage play the Eagles have run the past three years to almost perfection.
Even with the retirement of Pro Bowl center Jason Kelce this year, the Eagles have been using it well enough to get two one-yard touchdown runs out of it by quarterback Jalen Hurts last week in New York.
"It's one of those things that has stood the test of time already," Anarumo said last week. "Big point of emphasis for us is we want to stay out of those downs if we can. But even if it's a third-and-six, or a long third-and-12, 14, you can't let it be fourth and two because they're not going off the field, they're going to go for it. We've talked about how we're going to approach those things, but it's very difficult. They don't get stopped very often. "
Even with Kelce, it's still breaking bad for foes.
"He was great, but those other guys are still mauling you in there. It's a rugby scrum to the nth degree," Anarumo said …
Offensive tackle Andrew Stueber is active for the Bengals and becomes the first player ever from Darien High Schol in Darien, Conn., to play in an NFL game …
