The 2025 regular season is officially just 17 days away, but there’s a lot of football that needs to be played before we get there. In the case of the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Commanders, that means closing out the second week of the preseason with a victory.
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Both teams will be playing their starters tonight, meaning that fans will get to enjoy a brief matchup between two of the most prominent passers in the league today in Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow. The first quarter figures to be one of the most exciting ones of the entire preseason, but for each of these coaching staffs, the focus will primarily be on the defensive side of the ball.
The Bengals’ defense was historically awful in 2024. They allowed their opponents to score a whopping total of 434 points, tied for the eighth most by any team in the NFL last season.
From a points per game basis, it was one of the worst performances in recent history, and their inability to limit, let alone stop their opponents, was directly responsible for them missing the playoffs. Unfortunately for Washington, they weren’t much better.
The Commanders allowed 391 points last year, the 15th highest total in the league. Daniels’ record-breaking production was enough to mask their mistakes at times, but should they hope to return to the NFC Championship this season, then they’ll have to be measurably better.
Thankfully, this type of quarterback matchup should give both teams a much better understanding of where their respective defenses stand prior to Week 1 of the regular season. Although that also implies a high scoring first quarter in tonight’s contest, which has caused many fans to fancy their chances at hitting the Over on the betting lines.
MNF Preseason Play 🏈
Bengals vs Commanders 1Q O 7.5 -115 0.75U (365)
❤️
2 bad defenses with 2 elite quarterbacks expected to play the majority of the 1Q. Give me points early, both teams play at a pretty quick tempo and I see both teams getting in the endzone pretty… pic.twitter.com/v2cnIpEtca
— KoalaPicks (@KoalaPicks_) August 18, 2025
The Bengals are still struggling with the fact that they have to pay Trey Hendrickson, who has managed to lead the league in sacks for two consecutive years now. While they do have the services of Shemar Stewart to fall back in, the amount of pressure that their first-string defense is able to generate tonight, or lack thereof, will likely become a talking point as we inch closer towards the regular season.
Washington, on the other hand, has made several moves throughout the offseason in an attempt to fix their issues. They managed to sign the likes of Bobby Wagner and Javon Kinlaw to enhance their coverage in the short and intermediate parts of the field, and they found a slew of secondary help through both free agency and the draft as well.
Of course, we won’t know how much the unit has improved until they actually step onto the field and face an offense that is as potent as Cincinnati’s. Thankfully, fans will only have to wait until 8 pm EST before they are able to find out.
