Joe Burrow has expressed confidence in his team’s chances…
…do oddsmakers agree?
Things Lining Up For Cincy?
What Happened: As if it’s no big deal, Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow laid it out.
“I think 10 wins usually gets you in,” Burrow said after Cincy stumbled to a 3-5 start, “so we’ve got to win seven out of nine. That’s doable, so we’ll go from there.”
A win over the Raiders set them on the right path, but how realistic is a 7-2 (or better) run to finish the season?
Why It Matters: Cincinnati’s toughest test of this mad dash will come tonight against the AFC North rival Ravens. These teams played an OT thriller in Week 5 that the Ravens won. But the rest of the slate presents Burrow and Co. with opportunities.
A Week 14 game against what might be a Dak Prescott-less Cowboys team, followed by dates with the Titans and Browns are must-wins. Meetings with the Chargers (Week 11) and Steelers (Weeks 13 and 18) present the biggest stumbling blocks.
Under Burrow’s leadership, the Bengals have notoriously started slow and finished the season strong. If you see six wins still on the board, grab Cincy to make the playoffs, although the odds are -114, so you aren’t getting them at their lowest odds.
And if you do think they can pull this off, Burrow for MVP at +1900 could be worth a sprinkle, considering how on fire he’ll need to be for his team to pull this off.
Beating the 6.5-point favorite Ravens at home tonight would certainly give all this talk a whiff of legitimacy.
What We’re Watching Today
Bengals at Ravens (8:15 PM ET) – A brief surge from Josh Allen had him tied with Lamar Jackson, but it’s now the Baltimore QB with the best odds to win NFL MVP again at +300. Another big performance in an island game will make this all but Jackson’s trophy to lose.
Timberwolves at Bulls (8:00 PM ET) – Minnesota’s defense has appeared to soften a bit, and as a result, the over has hit in 4 of its last 6 games. It’s also been overs in two of Chicago’s last three, all of them Bulls losses as they struggle to stop anyone from scoring.
The Look Ahead
Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens – Divisional games in the NFL, especially in the AFC North, are dogfights. That doesn’t mean betting on them is guesswork. Check out these insights before you crack open that sports betting app of yours:
🐦⬛ Baltimore being a championship contender is nothing new under John Harbaugh, but the way this team is winning isn’t exactly old-school Ravens. Lamar Jackson and the offense are driving the success here, and it shows up in betting trends: eight of nine games involving the Ravens have hit the over, the highest rate of any NFL team this season. Even more specific: Baltimore has played a team with a losing record four times this season, and all four games have gone over. When the Bengals have faced teams with winning records? A perfect 4-0 for the overs too. TL;DR, expect plenty of points tonight in a game that’s projected total is 52.5 as of this writing.
🔄 Cincinnati will try to extend one trend tonight while extinguishing another. With Joe Burrow under center, the Bengals are 12-3 against the spread when underdogs of at least a field goal; Baltimore is favored by 6.5 tonight, and has recent history on its side, as home favorites on Thursday Night Football are 4-1 ATS.
📈 Jackson and the Ravens bested Cincy back in a Week 5 OT thriller, making it three straight wins (and three straight covers) for Baltimore over their AFC North rival. All three games, of course, went over the projected points total.
