The Bengals will be without red zone threat Tyler Eifert for Week 5. The fragile tight end suffered a back injury. When will he get on the field?
It’s Week 5 and it’s the same old story. The Cincinnati Bengals will be without their red zone threat. Tyler Eifert will not be a part of the Cincinnati offense when they play the Dallas Cowboys. After injuring his back during practice, Eifert was ruled out of the pivotal Sunday afternoon matchup. It’s becoming so routine, it’s actually scary. Kinda makes you wonder if the Pro Bowl tight end is made of glass.
After a solid performance on Thursday Night Football, the Bengals had a mini-bye. The extra days were looked upon as time to really get healthy and make a run at taking over the AFC North. Dre Kirkpatrick is looking like he’ll start Sunday. But, his return was overshadowed by the “new” injury to Eifert.
The injury to Eifert was compounded by the inconsistent offense. Last year, Eifert was able to help Cincinnati’s red zone offense in a huge way. When the Bengals ventured inside the 20-yard line, Eifert was one of four threats. Mohamed Sanu, Marvin Jones, and A.J. Green were his partners in crime. Andy Dalton targeted Eifert 15 times and was rewarded with 13 TDs. Yeah…more than Rob Gronkowski.
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The man who made defenders look at him like Gronk 2.0 is having a hard time getting on the field. After suffering a horrific elbow injury in 2014, Eifert has missed substantial playing time. How much time, you ask? Plenty.
Unbreakable?
Just as it looked like Tyler was turning the corner. Bam! Another setback hits the Notre Dame star. Eifert has missed a whopping 29 of 52 possible games. It’s football, right? There’s always the chance of severe injury. After all, bodies are slamming into other bodies and falling on turf and grass.Anything can happen. But it tends to happen to Mr. Eifert at a higher clip.
Marvin Lewis tried to explain the latest complication as just a “sore back.” But, the last time a sore back was mentioned Leon Hall was on a slow train to New York. Hall wound up having to undergo offseason surgery to correct the problem.
“A back is what it is, anybody that has ever had a sore back, until you have one yourself then you are a little bit more appraised of it, you understand one day you can be very sore and the next day you feel fine.That’s the way it is. Literally with 63 guys we’ve got 10 guys who have issues with their back all the time and it comes and goes.”
Is that posturing, avoiding the subject or good old positive vibes? Whatever Lewis is channeling, it reminds me of that movie with Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis.
Jackson’s character, Elijah Price, has a rare disease that makes his bones fragile and easy to break. He’s literally like glass. He discovers Willis’ character, David Dunn, through a serious train accident. Dunn is at the other end of the spectrum. He’s unbreakable. Wouldn’t it be cool to have Eifert take on Dunn’s role? Eifert…the Teflon tight end.
Well…it’s nice to dream.
The Moral
It would surely be nice to have a tight end that could walk through walls and catch touchdowns on the side. The Bengals couldn’t be stopped. But, for now, Eifert looks to be on the shelf. Whether it’s a few days or a few weeks, Cincinnati’s offense needs to step up and use the strengths available.
Calling Dr. Zampese…you need to get creative…stat.
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