Jaguars open as favorites over Bengals

The Bengals are home dogs vs. Minshew Mania.

By Jason Marcum@marcum89 Oct 14, 2019, 9:00am EDT

Cincinnati Bengals vs Jacksonville Jaguars - October 9, 2005

The Bengals are 0-6, and they’re going to be underdogs in most of their remaining games.

That includes their Week 7 home game vs. the 2-4 Jaguars. While they may not have a lot of wins, they’ve been far more competitive in their losses than Cincinnati has to go with wins over the Titans and Broncos.

That’s why oddsmakers are favoring the road team this week, as BetOnline has tabbed the Jaguars as a 3.5-point favorite. Even though Jacksonville has clearly been a better team, I am a little surprised the line is bigger than a field goal.

After all, the Bengals have four one-score losses, so it’s not like they’re getting blown out every week.

Another takeaway from this is the oddsmakers must not think A.J. Green will play. He’d be a major boost in the Bengals’ lineup, enough to keep the spread from being more than a field goal in my option.

Of course, they may think Green could be play but not be effective after such a long layoff. And with the potential of Jalen Ramsey returning from his back injury, that could offset the return of Green anyhow.

Oddsmakers also expect a low-scoring game with an over/under of 45.5. Seeing how these two offenses have performed this season, that may be generous.