NFL Betting Picks: Oakland Raiders at Cincinnati Bengals

Added on Nov 25, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The hapless Oakland Raiders head East looking for a victory as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals can get above .500 with a win here–they enter the game at 5-5 on the year. The Raiders, meanwhile, continue to slump and have a record of 3-7 having lost their last three games.

Oakland Raiders at Cincinnati Bengals
November 25, 2012 10:00 AM Pacific

Two teams I’d rather bet against. The Raiders go without saying–in fact they’re probably not as good as their 3-7 record suggests which is a scary prospect. They’re also 3-7 ATS meaning that they’re not competitive in most of their losses. The Bengals are 2-3 SU/1-3-1 ATS in their five home games this year and are 8-12-1 ATS since 2010. They’re likely the better team by default but they’re not a team that gives us the confidence to lay more than a touchdown as they’re being asked to do here. In fact, they haven’t been favored by this much in over three years. The Raiders have actually shown a profit as an underdog since 2010 going 17-13 ATS.

Don’t trust the Bengals as favorites, especially of more than a touchdown. Don’t trust the Raiders in any situation—they don’t have a running game due to injuries to Darren McFadden, Mike Goodson and Taiwan Jones who are all ‘questionable’ for this game. Their defense ranks dead last in points allowed yielding 32.2 PPG. They do have decent receivers and the Bengals secondary is nothing special. Should be a decent amount of points scored and the weather forecast for Sunday looks favorable. For this time of year it’s almost balmy in Cincinnati with kickoff temps in the high 40′s and sunny skies. There will be a slight wind but not enough to concern us much. The Raiders have gone Over the total in 6 of their 10 games this year. The Bengals have split Overs and Unders at 5-5 but they shouldn’t have any problem moving the ball against Oakland’s porous defense. At the same time the Bengals’ primary defensive vulnerability is in the secondary. Since Oakland’s running game is nonexistent at this point due to the aforementioned injuries they’ll be flinging the ball all over the yard. Looks like a formula for an easy ‘Over’.

Bet Oakland/Cincinnati Over 50