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This week’s game against the visiting Miami Dolphins feels as familiar as Yogi Berra’s famous line about deja vu.

  • Cincinnati faces an explosive running back: After having varying levels of success containing Ray Rice, Trent Richardson, and Maurice Jones-Drew, the Bengals face Reggie Bush, who went off for almost 200 yards and two touchdowns just two weeks ago against the Jets.
  • The parade of rookie quarterbacks continues: After facing Brandon Weeden and Robert Griffin III, the Bengals now get Ryan Tannehill. The Bengals haven’t been too good against rooks this season. They have eked out wins over both of the guys they faced, but Griffin got his yards and almost brought the Redskins back, while Weeden looked like a Pro Bowler only a week after posting a deplorable 5.1 passer rating. Tannehill may be 1-3 as a starter, but his favorite target, WR Brian Hartline is the league’s leading receiver.
  • Injuries to the secondary make this one worrisome: No word yet on whether CB’s Leon Hall and Nate Clements are going to play this week, but the secondary remains pretty banged up. That will make things tough.

There are a few things that are different this week, though. The Dolphins have a much better defense than the Jaguars and Redskins, and they have a better offensive line than the Ravens and Browns.

That’ll put the squeeze on the Bengals both ways. The defensive line is going to have to find ways to put pressure on Tannehill like they did with Griffin and Jacksonville’s Blaine Gabbert. They’ve got to contain Bush like they did MJD, not let him run wild in the passing and rushing games like they did with Rice and Richardson.

Meanwhile, RT Andre Smith has got to keep QB Andy Dalton clean against one of the league’s better pass rushers in LDE Cameron Wake. If Dalton can keep making plays the way he has been, Cincinnati can wear Miami down.

And that’s the real key to this game. Miami has been in some close games, but they have found ways to lose. They missed two field goals — one in overtime — against the Jets, and they gave up a tying touchdown late and an overtime field goal to the Cardinals last week. If the Bengals can keep the pressure on the Dolphins, this team believes it will lose. They’ve seen games slip away, and, after that happens a few times, you start to believe that’s the way it will always be. Cincinnati needs to keep the idea of the inevitability of failure in the minds of the Miami players.

Contain Reggie Bush. Disrupt Ryan Tannehill. Keep pressure on the Dolphins, so they believe they will ultimately lose. If the Bengals do all that, there will be one more piece of deja vu associated with this game — a Bengals victory.