NFL Betting Preview: Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

Added on Dec 11, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The disappointing Cincinnati Bengals limp into Heinz Field with a 2-10 SU record to take on the 9-3 Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday NFL action. Cincinnati played reasonably well last weekend before losing to New Orleans, while the Steelers are off a hard fought and typically physical victory over their arch rivals the Baltimore Ravens.

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers
December 12, 2010 10:00 AM Pacific

The Dallas Cowboys may have received the most press for their struggles, but the Cincinnati Bengals are easily the most underachieving disappointment in the NFL. The Cowboys have at least started to address their issues, while the Bengals are just playing out the string until the end of the season. The result has been a 2-10 SU/4-8 ATS season in which the Bengals have constantly been outworked. Relative to this matchup, in addition to their other liabilities the Bengals are a woeful 10-23 ATS against AFC opponents since 2008.

Hard to like Cincinnati in any situation, but this week we’re going to take them plus the points and look for them to keep this one close. The Bengals have covered 12 of their last 19 as underdogs including last week at home against New Orleans. Tough scheduling spot for the home team off that draining win over Baltimore and with another tough AFC game against the New York Jets on deck. The Steelers have a fair amount of injuries and could just be physically beat up after that slugfest against the Ravens. If the Bengals are going to show up for any game the rest of this season this will be it. They’ve covered 9 of the last 17 in the Steel City so they’ve been competitive in head to head play. In this spot we just don’t see the Steelers putting up the kind of margin necessary to cover this number. We look for Pittsburgh to win but we like Cincy to keep it close.

Bet Cincinnati Bengals +9′ over Pittsburgh Steelers