For a second straight week, the Seattle Seahawks will be without running back Marshawn Lynch. For the second straight week, the Seahawks will look to win without him.

The team will also try for its third victory in a row against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Hawks are coming off consecutive home wins against winless NFC North foes, the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. Seattle will now try its hand at an AFC North opponent without a loss on its resume.

The Bengals may be Seattle’s biggest test of the season since the Green Bay Packers.

Cincinnati certainly has the offense to rival that of Green Bay, or just about anyone in the league the way the team is playing.

The Bengals are the rare team that can beat opponents through the air and on the ground.

Andy Dalton has come out of the gates firing, completing 67.2 percent of his passes, totaling 1,187 yards and posting a nine to one touchdown-to-interception ratio. The signal caller also leads the league in yards gained per pass attempt and yards gained per pass completion. All of this is pretty outstanding considering the gaudy offensive numbers being posted in Arizona and New England. Essentially, the way he’s playing, Dalton is essentially the opposite statistical of the Hawks’ last opposing quarterback, Matthew Stafford. Stafford is second-to-last in the league in terms of yards gained per pass attempt and yards gained per pass completion.

Like Stafford, Dalton has a favored target at wide receiver. A.J. Green leads the team statistically in almost every receiving category. On the season, Green has 25 catches for 417 yards and three touchdowns.

With Dalton, Green and the rest of the Bengals aerial assault are dangerous, the team can be dominant on the ground. The thunder-and-lightning duo comprising of Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard is one of the more dominant running back pairings in the league. Either one has the ability to rack up major yards on the ground. Hill leads the Bengals with five rushing touchdowns while Bernard leads the team with 297 rushing yards.

The stability of Hill and Bernard is almost the exact opposite of the situation in Seattle’s own backfield. Lynch will miss his second straight contest due to a hamstring strain. One of Lynch’s backups, Fred Jackson, is dealing with a high-ankle sprain, and will likely play through the injury. The other recipient of the touches vacated by ‘Beast Mode’ will be Thomas Rawls. The physical runner turned in a promising effort against the Bears in week three with 16 carries for 104 yards, but was stifled against the Lions. The undrafted rookie managed 17 carries for only 48 yards against Detroit. His longest run was only ten yards.

Seattle will need more production out of Jackson and Rawls if the team wants to avoid the “one dimensional” tag that seems to be shadowing the offensive unit as of late.  

Without Lynch, the Hawks become more dependent on Russell Wilson. While it doesn’t mean that the offense will become completely one dimensional, it does likely mean more pass attempts for Wilson.

This could prove a good thing for Wilson, considering the Bengals have allowed the eighth-most passing yards in the league. If the Seahawks put up big numbers through the air, expect Jimmy Graham to be heavily involved.

The highly-talented tight end posted an underwhelming stat line against the Lions, catching four passes for 29 yards. The last time Graham posted an uncharacteristic statistical output, which was in week two versus the Packers, he followed it up with a game that is more along the lines of what people expect from the towering tight end.

Graham had one catch for 11 yards against Green Bay before hauling in seven passes for 83 yards and a touchdown against Chicago.

The game also marks Kam Chancellor’s first road game with the Hawks. The safety missed the first two games of the season during his contract holdout. Upon his return, Seattle went 2-0 at home and forced defenses to punt on 18 of 20 drives at CenturyLink Field. It will be interesting to see how Chancellor and the defense fair on the road, especially against Dalton and the Bengals’ offense.

Injury Report:

Lynch is out for the game with a hamstring injury. Joining him in street clothes are cornerback Tharold Simon and defensive back Marcus Burley. Simon has a toe injury while Burley has a hand injury.

Jackson remains questionable, while defensive end Demarcus Dobbs, linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis and cornerback Tye Smith are all doubtful. Dobbs is dealing with a shoulder issue while Smith has a hip injury. Pierre-Louis has a hamstring problem.

Rounding out the injury report are defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, wide receiver Ricardo Lockette and free safety Steven Terrell. All are probable after fully participating in practice throughout the week. 

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About the author
Ben Rosener
Ben Rosener is a sports writer born and raised in the greater Seattle area. He is a college who is the editor and founder of two sports websites, Kingdome of Seattle Sports and Know Hitter, the latter of which is a member of the BBA. Ben’s work can also be found on the digital pages of Bleacher Report, USA Today, World Soccer Talk and FanSided among others. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.