Atkins won the first weekly award of his career with two sacks and six tackles in Sunday’s 13-10 win at Pittsburgh that clinched a second consecutive playoff berth for the Bengals.
“Any time you get an award it’s good,” Atkins said. “It’s good to be recognized for the week I had against the Steelers.”
The Offensive Player of the Week was Baltimore running back Ray Rice, whom Atkins and the Bengals face Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium in the regular-season finale.
Atkins is the sixth Cincinnati player to win an AFC award this season.
Adam Jones was Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 2 against Cleveland; Michael Johnson won defensive honors in Week 3 at Washington; Andy Dalton took home offensive accolades in Week 10 against the New York Giants; Carlos Dunlap earned the defensive award in Week 13 at San Diego; and A.J. Green was named Offensive Player of the Month in September.
Seed stats: Since 2005, the No. 6 seeds have had the best won-loss record in the NFL playoffs, going 16-12 with two Super Bowl championships (Pittsburgh in 2005, Green Bay in 2010).
No other seed group has won more than one Super Bowl during that time, and only the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds are above .500. Here are the won-loss records for the other five seeds: No. 1s 13-13; No. 2s 12-13; No. 3s 11-13; No. 4s 15-13; No. 5s 10-12.
“You’ve seen some different teams do it,” Bengals offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said when asked about the recent increase of 5 and 6 seeds making deep playoff runs. “The truth is they’re kind of playing and getting better every week. Teams are sitting around debating how much rest should we get or how much work should we do, and the other teams are just rolling.
“Sometimes even with the risk of injuries, it’s better to have guys out there taking snaps,” Whitworth continued. “It’s football. To keep going out there and playing and keeping that hot hand can help you.”
Whit's worth: A few hours before finding out he had been selected as a first alternate for the Pro Bowl on Wednesday, Whitworth had a pointed comment about the process of picking the teams.
“It’s a joke to me,” Whitworth said. “It’s a popularity contest. You see it every year. There are guys that don’t even play half a season, get put on IR and they still make the Pro Bowl. I don’t worry about that stuff every year. I plan to try and make the playoffs and do what I do and that’s it. That’s all you can do. It doesn’t matter one way or the other to me. I know people probably think that’s crazy, but it really doesn’t.”
The seventh-year pro has never been to the Pro Bowl, but as a first alternate behind Cleveland’s Joe Thomas, Houston’s Duane Brown and Denver’s Ryan Clady, there is a good chance he could make his first trip to Honolulu.
“If it happens it happens,” he said.
Injury update: Running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis missed practice Thursday with an illness, and kicker Mike Nugent sat out with the calf injury that has forced him to miss the last three games. Nugent was a full participant at Wednesday's indoor practice at the University of Cincinnati facility.
Cornerbacks Jason Allen, Terence Newman and Adam Jones all were listed as limited with hamstring injuries. Safety Reggie Nelson (shoulder) also was limited.
Baltimore Pro Bowl nose tackle Haloti Ngata (knee) did not practice for a second day in a row.
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