Cincinnati Looks to Avoid Another Upset as 6 ½ Point Favorites

The Cincinnati Bengals will looked to avoid another upset when they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home as 6 ½ point favorites in the NFL sportsbook on Sunday, Oct. 10th.

The Bengals found a way to lose to the awful Cleveland Browns 23 to 20 last Sunday even though they were 1 ½ point road favorites. The NFL sportsbook odds makers obviously knew something that most football handicappers didn’t since the Bengals appeared to be an overlay as less than 3-point road favorites versus Cleveland.

[Off topic: by the way, do you want to get a 55% bonus on your first deposit here at BetOnline? If so JOIN NOW.]

Those same odds makers believe that Cincy will bounce back this week versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Where: Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio

When: Oct. 10th, 2010 at 1:00 pm EST

TV: FOX

Radio: Sirius – 158 (TB) 123 (CIN)

NFL Betting Lines

Tampa Bay Buccaneers +6 ½ -110 +240 O 38 -110

Cincinnati Bengals -6 ½ -110 -290 U 38 -110

The NFL sportsbook football trends favor the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in this game.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 5 and 1 ATS in their last 6 games on the road.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 6 and 0 ATS in their last 6 games on field turf.
• The Cincinnati Bengals are 1 and 4 ATS in their last 5 games at home.
• The Cincinnati Bengals are 7-19-1 ATS in their last 27 games as a favorite at home.

The reason that the NFL sportsbook odds makers are all over the Cincinnati Bengals in this game is because the Bengals suffered a serious let down when losing to the Cleveland Browns in their last.

The Bengals are supposed to bounce back from tough losses and a bounce back should be in order now that Cincy got a chance to see how awful the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can really be. The Bucs D was absolutely demolished in their 38 to 13 loss to the Ben Roethlisberger-less Pittsburgh Steelers in their last game.

Pitt was only a 2-point favorite but they managed to rush for over 200 yards on the ground even though Big Ben wasn’t under center.

Pitt also threw for 186 yards against the Bucs’ suddenly porous D. The Bengals’ Carson Palmer should have a field day setting things up for wide receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens. Owens had his best game of the season last week when catching 10 balls for 222 yards and a TD.

The Bengals don’t want Owens to have such a great game this Sunday. Oh, sure, they’ll take it if T.O. can bring it, but Cincy would much rather increase their rushing output from their usual 92 yards per game. The Bengals need to get Cedric Benson going on the ground. If CB isn’t effective, then they need to hand the ball off to Bernard Scott.

Either way, the Bengals success at covering the spread in the NFL sportsbook depends on them establishing a running game and then throwing the ball downfield to Owens and VH1 Chad. Tampa’s offense is dreadful, it’s ranked 26th in the NFL and amasses less than 290 yards per game, so Cincy’s D should be able to able to shut it down.

The more I look at this game, the more I like what I see. Cincinnati should have no trouble winning this game by at least 7 points and I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat Tampa Bay by between 10 and 14 points. The Buccaneers just don’t match up well against the Bengals’ superstar laden offense and Cincinnati’s D gets to throttle a lackluster Tampa offense.

I believe that the Bengals are one of the best picks in the NFL sportsbook to cover the spread this Sunday.

NFL Betting Pick: Cincinnati Bengals -6 ½ -110

Week 5 odds are up in the NFL sportsbook, click here!