Raiders at Bengals week 12 game thread

The Raiders come in at 3-7, clinging to the hopes of salvaging a season. The Bengals at 5-5 have very real playoff aspirations.

The storylines for the week have two reunions. First is Carson Palmer first return to Cincinnati since he retired to force a trade. The second is the Raiders meeting up with their former head coach and the man who traded to acquire Carson Palmer - Hue Jackson.

Jackson is an assistant secondary and special teams coach for the Bengals. A departure from his usual offensive minded arena. But no other team stepped up to hire him and so his former head coach with the Bengals, gave him a job.

The Bengals have a great defense and they will get after Carson Palmer in the pass rush. On offense they have some good weapons in QB Andy Dalton, WR AJ Green, TE Jermaine Gresham, and RB Benjarvis Green-Ellis.

The Raiders will look for Marcel Reece to have another good day after rushing for 103 yards with 90 yards receiving last week. It will be more difficult to do against a tough defense in Cincinnati. Carson Palmer and Denarius Moore working out their kinks in the passing game will be key to the Raiders offense as well.

Tyvon Branch returns this week after missing last week with a neck injury. He will resume the starting strong safety position.

Raiders inactives: QB Terrelle Pryor, DT Richard Seymour, RB Mike Goodson, RB Darren McFadden, OT Willie Smith, G Lucas Nix, and DE Jack Crawford.

Bengals inactives: WR Andrew Hawkins, CB Jason Allen, S George Iloka, DT Devon Still, DT Brandon Thompson, WR Armon Binns, TE Richard Quinn