Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars (-1), Total 36.5 |
Cincinnati heads back on the road and will bring in the league’s No. 1 defense to face the worst offense in the NFL. The Bengals covered their first two games of the season that happened to be on the road, including a 27-17 season-opening win against Cleveland as 6.5-point underdogs.
The Bengals are allowing just 275.5 yards per game this season, which includes a total of just 347 rushing yards over a four-game span. “Everyone was counting us out as being the worst team in the NFL,” commented linebacker Rey Maualuga.
It’s still important to note that the Bengals are 6-11 in this series, including a 1-7 mark when playing on the road. The only time they’ve won in Jacksonville was all the way back in 1995.
Offensively, the team is 23rd in the league in scoring, while ranking 12th in the running game behind Cedric Benson.
Rookie quarterback Andy Dalton’s play has fallen off a bit since starting the season with consecutive games with a 100 passer rating or more, but he still got the job done in the second half last week in leading his team to a 23-20 win over the Buffalo Bills as three-point home underdogs last week.
Bettors will find that the Bengals are 17-20 ATS over the last two-plus seasons and the ‘over’ has a slight 19-18 advantage in those contests.
Jacksonville has to get things going offensively and many around the team believe that quarterback Blaine Gabbert is ready to break out after throwing 42 passes last week. He is 0-2 as a starter, completing 16 of those passes for 196 yards in last week’s 23-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints as nine-point home underdogs.
It could be rough stretch for the team that has scored just 39 points in the first four weeks, as they are set to face the top three teams currently in defensive yardage the next three weeks.
This will be the first meeting between these two teams since 2008, as the Jaguars have won seven consecutive games in the series when playing as host.
Bettors will find that Jacksonville is 3-6 ATS as a favorite over the last two-plus campaigns and the ‘over’ is 5-4 in those contests.
