On Wednesday, the Bears came in with 10 players on their injury report, including all four starting receivers for the Bears (DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Luther Burden, Olamide Zaccheaus). Coming into an essential game of the season to help propel the Bears’ playoff chances for the rest of the season, it wasn’t an ideal situation to come into. In good news, of those 10, only four of them are confirmed to be out, with Burden, Dominique Robinson, Roschon Johnson, and D’Andre Swift. While there has been a lot answered on the Bears’ side of things, a lot is still left up in the air for Cincy.
According to the official NFL injury report, the Bengals have five players listed as having an unspecified game status. Those players include Dalton Risner, Cameron Sample, Cedric Johnson, B.J. Hill, and Dylan Fairchild. Beyond that, four of the most important players for them are questionable or worse, including Trey Hendirckson (doubtful, hip), Logan Wilson (doubtful, calf), and Joe Flacco (questionable, shoulder). The Bengals’ defense has not been a strong unit, even with those players in the lineup; now, expecting them to go up against a unit schemed by Ben Johnson isn’t the greatest matchup. To answer the question at the top, I’d have to say the Bears are clearly the healthier team coming into this one, which will hopefully pay big dividends.