Any road trip into Arrowhead Stadium is already a tough assignment for any franchise forced to play the Kansas City Chiefs on their very, very loud home turf. For the Cincinnati Bengals, that's the least of their concerns.
The Bengals began the season by laying another early-scheduled egg to begin the year under head coach Zac Taylor (par for his course) against the New England Patriots of all teams in Week 1. After somehow losing to Jacoby Brissett and company, they now must venture to face the consecutive Super Bowl-winning Chiefs who looked much sharper in Week 1 in a win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Things are not trending well for the Cincinnati Bengals headed into Week 2.
Even worse for the Bengals is how they're trending health-wise. Instead of getting guys back, which is what the Chiefs might be doing with Hollywood Brown, the truth is that it looks like Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is going to face long odds to play on Sunday afternoon—or at least that's how it looks at this point.
On Thursday, Higgins was forced to sit out of practice entirely for the second consecutive day as Cincinnati hit the practice field. Higgins already missed Week 1 with a hamstring injury that occurred shortly before the season began.
Tee Higgins not practicing again today.
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) September 12, 2024
Trending towards no Tee Higgins on Sunday in KC and a second straight game OUT to open the season. #Bengals @fox19 pic.twitter.com/nYETIr498r
As shown in the above footage from Fox 19's Jeremy Rauch in Cincinnati, Higgins' activities on the day were limited as his teammates were preparing to face the Chiefs without him.
To add some salt to the wound, there's a mystery of sorts around whether or not Joe Burrow is completely healthy when referencing a potential wrist injury. Burrow's depth of target in his Week 1 passes and garnered only 164 yards on 21 completions on the day against the Pats. Burrow shook off concerns in a press conference earlier this week, but that's understandable since no player is goign to give anything away to reporters like that.
Higgins was already a question mark coming into the week, but the lack of practice for him at this stage only seems to cement the doubts that were there. That's not necessarily going to hold with any certainty through Sunday but the plot line would need a sizeable twist.
The Chiefs and the Bengals are expected to kick off on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead at 3:25 p.m. C.T.