LA Chargers: Getting to know the Week 1 opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals
By Devon Auriemma
The LA Chargers open the 2020 season against the Cincinnati Bengals. Let’s get to know last year’s last-place team.
The Cincinnati Bengals and LA Chargers had a poor 2019 season and moved on from their long-time quarterbacks, Andy Dalton and Philip Rivers.
Each team went on to take their future franchise leader in this year’s draft, with the Bengals taking Joe Burrow with the first pick and the Chargers taking Justin Herbert with the sixth. By taking a quarterback in the draft instead of signing a free agent, this gave each team the opportunity to spend their cap space to help improve the rest of their roster.
The Bengals and Chargers have the opportunity to surprise a lot of people this year. While the Chargers have an elite defense and numerous playmakers on offense, the Bengals got a few big pieces back from injury and some new additions via free agency and the draft.
LA Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals — Last five matchups
The Bengals have won three of the last five meetings against the Chargers. This will be the first matchup between these two teams since December of 2018, where the Chargers won 26-21. The other Chargers win came in the 2013 playoffs, where they defeated the Bengals 26-10.
Even though the Chargers have lost one more game than the Bengals in their last five meetings, they have outscored them by three points. If this game is anything like the last five meetings, we can expect a close game decided by one possession that could go either way.