Cincinnati Regular Season Wins: Over 7.5 at (-180) or Under 7.5 at (+150)

It is rare to see a defending division champion who also swept their division rivals last year get fitted with a total this low. The Bengals are heavy favorites to get to 8-8 this year, but the players and their fans are definitely wanting a lot better than that. In the Carson Palmer era the Bengals can never seem to get both sides of the ball working effectively. In earlier years Palmer and the offense would score at will but the defense couldn’t stop anyone. Last year, the Bengals defense ranked 4th in the league, but the passing attack was 26th and they became very predictable on offense; enter Terrell Owens.

Cincinnati knows that Palmer is a stud at QB if given the weapons and the Bengals went out and did that this year. The team will also be offended that both the Ravens and Steelers have higher win totals posted by odds makers. It is unlikely they will be able to sweep the division again, but they should be able to at least split with the Ravens and Steelers while sweeping the Browns who aren’t expected to get many wins. If they can get four wins right there they are already half way to 8 wins.

The Bengals must play New England, Miami, New York Jets and Buffalo from the AFC East, which will be a tough road, but the Patriots aren’t expected to do as well this year, Buffalo is in rebuilding mode, and Cincinnati would love to get some revenge on the Jets after last season’s playoff game.

Cincy must also play both teams that appeared in the Super Bowl last year, but they do get the indoor New Orleans Saints out in the cold Cincinnati weather in early December. Another warm weather team in San Diego visits Cincinnati on Boxing day, so the Bengals could benefit late in the year with being able to use their pounding rushing attack to grind down these opponents in the cold.

The other three games on the Bengals schedule consist of Carolina, Tampa Bay and Atlanta, all winnable games for the Bengals. As you can see, it won’t be an easy road for the Bengals to post another winning season but this may be the most talented team they have had in years and these misfits from the Queen City love to prove the doubters wrong. After all, the team is full of players who have had run-ins with the law, or management in other organizations and were all given another shot in the orange and black.

Expect the Bengals to surprise all of their doubters this year and easily get by that win total of 7.5 and be in the thick of things late in the year for another division crown.

Although the juice is high on this play, take over 7.5 wins for Cincinnati this year.

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