Germaine Pratt becoming Bengals’ man in the middle

For Cincinnati Bengals’ third-year linebacker Germaine Pratt, it’s always about the ball.

“He always say it’s about the ball,” Vonn Bell, one of the Bengals’ defensive captains, said recently. “He said ‘I woke up thinking about the ball.’”

And Pratt doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks the walk.

With his forced fumble and fumble recovery against the Chargers in Week 13, Pratt became the first Bengals’ linebacker in nearly 20 years to record multiple forced fumbles and recoveries in the same season.

“It’s all about the ball,” Pratt said. “Linebackers want to touch the ball, too.”

Since that Chargers’ game, Pratt has become everything the Bengals hoped he would be when they took him in the third…