The Cincinnati Bengals will look to end several losing streaks this week when the Miami Dolphins come to Paul Brown Stadium.
The immediate steak needing to end is the Bengals' two-game losing streak following their Week 3 loss to the Denver Broncos. That has Cincinnati sitting at 1-2 and staring down the barrel of a 1-3 start, which tends to be fatal for playoff hopes.
Another losing streak the Bengals are looking to end is a three-game skid to the Dolphins, who are 2-0 against Cincinnati in the Andy Dalton era. The Dolphins have historically dominated Cincinnati with 11 wins in the 13 meetings since 1980.
Dalton and the Bengals are also looking to end a four-game losing streak in primetime games, which began with last season's home loss to the Houston Texans and was extended thanks to the Wild Card debacle against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Needless to say, a win Thursday night would bring a lot of good will and momentum back to a team we thought could be a championship contender.
Odds and Betting Trends
The Bengals opened as seven-point favorites and the total was 43.5 early in the week. The line has risen to 7.5 points as of Wednesday night.
Here are some of the recent betting trends for both teams, courtesy of OddsShark.
- Cincinnati is 0-3-2 against the spread in its last five games
- Cincinnati is 2-4 straight up in its last six games
- Cincinnati is 1-4-1 against the spread in its last six games at home
- Cincinnati is 17-7-1 straight up in its last 25 games at home
- Cincinnati is 2-4 straight up in its last six games at home
- Cincinnati is 1-5 against the spread in its last six games when playing Miami
- Cincinnati is 2-11 straight up in its last 13 games when playing Miami
- Miami is 2-8 against the spread in its last 10 games
- Miami is 2-5 straight up in its last seven games
- The total has gone under in four of Miami's last six games
- Miami is 2-5 against the spread in its last seven games on the road
- Miami is 1-6 straight up in its last seven games on the road
Expert Picks and Predictions
Here's a look at how all of the national experts are picking this game:
- Experts at CBS Sports are favoring the Bengals for the game, as all eight are picking Cincinnati.
- Of the nine experts who picked from ESPN, five went with Cincinnati as of Wednesday night.
- FOX Sports' experts have yet to make their Week 4 picks, but their WhatIf simulator has Cincinnati winning 26-23 and gives them a 59.3-percent chance of winning.
- Iron Rank predicts the Bengals to win by one .5 points, though they have Cincinnati having just a slight advantage in most offensive and defensive categories.
- All 10 of SB Nation’s experts are picking the Bengals to win, including the OddsShark computer.
- NFL Picks Watch, which accounts for all of the picks across various websites, has Cincinnati getting 93 percent of picks as of the time this story was published.
All of this would seem to indicate the Bengals are in great shape to win this game on Thursday night, but then again, that was also the case in each of the last two matchups with Miami.
The Dolphins have won the past two meetings in Cincinnati by a combined 12 points, and they are battle-tested on the road following one-score losses at New England and at Seattle in the first two weeks of the season.
Miami also won the previous matchup, which came in 2013, an overtime win over Cincinnati. That came thanks to a walk-off safety caused by Cameron Wake sacking Dalton for the win.