Thanksgiving NFL Betting Odds: Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets

Added on Nov 24, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

This looked like one of the better Thanksgiving Day NFL games on paper before the season started, but now its a matchup of a solid playoff contender against one of the biggest disappointments in the league. The Jets are 8-2, the Bengals 2-8 and that fact has taken much of the appeal away from this matchup. From a pointspread standpoint, however, it could be an intriguing NFL betting matchup.

Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets
November 25, 2010 5:20 PM Pacific

The Cincinnati Bengals are lucky that their trainwreck of a season has been overshadowed by more compelling stories of franchises in collapse in Dallas and Minnesota. Were it not for the Cowboys’ struggles along with the Vikings’ struggles on the field and Brett Favre’s dong shots off the the field, the tank job of this Bengals team would be a huge story. Cincinnati enters this contest with a 2-8 SU/3-7 ATS record having lost 7 straight games and failing to cover in six of these defeats. For the Jets it’s been ‘business as usual’. They’ve won 7 of 8 and are tied with the New England Patriots atop the AFC East.

In some ways, the Bengals’ ‘tank job’ this season has been the most embarrassing all around performance by any NFL team. Dallas’ fall was dramatic, but they’re already heading in the right direction. Minnesota had high hopes entering the season, but in retrospect they were clearly unrealistic given Brett Favre’s age and physical condition and the depleted Vikings’ receiver corps. The Bengals have not only been a disappointment on the field, but no one around the organization appears to really care. Marvin Lewis knows he’s gone after this year. There’s also an absence of ‘character guys’ among the players to provide the leadership that Lewis isn’t. Cincinnati enters this game off an embarrassing home loss to Buffalo in which the Bengals blew a 28-7 lead. Buffalo has shown a lot of competitive moxie since Ryan Fitzpatrick became a starting quarterback but no NFL team should blow a 21 point lead on their own field. Most recently, Terrell Owens decided to make it ‘personal’ by calling out Jets’ cornerback Darrelle Revis. The two have a ‘history’, of course, but the irony of a player on a 2-8 team questioning the ability of a player on a 8-2 team apparently never occurred to ‘T.O.’

Despite their solid W/L record, the Jets are a hard team to figure out. To their credit, they’ve been fairly consistent on both sides of the ball this year. Despite this, they’ve only covered one of their last four games even though they won three of them outright. The Jets may be overvalued somewhat by the wagering public, but their current 4-10 ATS run at home suggests a team that is content with doing just enough to pull out a win.

Being ‘content to pull out a win’ may be more than enough against a Bengals team that looks to have packed it in for the year. T.O. at least is showing some interest, but his feud with Revis is personal and has nothing to do with the team. Cincinnati has been a good investment as an underdog in recent years but they’re also on a 10-22 ATS run against AFC opponents and a 0-6 SU/ATS run against the AFC East. The Jets had no trouble with them last year, winning and covering a pair of games both at home and on the road. If you’re going to bet this game there’s really no option other than to lay the points with the better team.

Play New York Jets -8′ over Cincinnati Bengals