Bengals vs. Patriots: Odds, expert picks and predictions

Over the past few weeks, we have watched as the oddsmakers and experts have started to slowly come around to the idea that the Bengals aren’t completely helpless. That sort of goes out the window with the Patriots coming to Cincinnati. It is surprising how close some things are, though.

Odds

The Bengals are currently 10-point underdogs at home against the Patriots, according to Bovada. The one thing we can gleam from this spread is that the oddsmakers are slightly higher on the Bengals (or maybe lower on the Patriots) than they were earlier in the season. There was probably a point where this spread could’ve been close to three scores, but Cincinnati’s turnaround after the bye at least has them competing in much closer games.

Betting trends

• The total has gone under in four of Cincinnati’s last six games.
• Cincinnati are 1-14 straight up in their last 15 games.
• The total has gone over in six of Cincinnati’s last eight games against New England.
• Cincinnati are 1-5 straight up in their last six games at home.
• Cincinnati are 6-2 against the spread in their last eight games when playing at home against New England.
• Cincinnati are 1-12 straight up in their last 13 games this season.
• The total has gone under in seven of Cincinnati’s last 10 games against an opponent in the AFC conference.
• The total has gone under in five of Cincinnati’s last five games against an opponent in the AFC East division.
• Cincinnati are 5-1 against the spread in their last six games played in December.
• New England are 1-4 against the spread in their last five games.
• The total has gone under in 10 of New England’s last 14 games.
• New England are 15-3 straight up in their last 18 games.
• New England are 5-1 against the spread in their last six games against Cincinnati.
• New England are 6-1 straight up in their last seven games against Cincinnati.
• New England are 6-2 straight up in their last eight games on the road.
• New England are 2-6 against the spread in their last eight games when playing on the road against Cincinnati.
• New England are 10-3 straight up in their last 13 games this season.
• New England are 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games against an opponent in the AFC conference.
• The total has gone under in four of New England’s last five games against an opponent in the AFC North division.

Expert picks

• Fox Sports is predicting a 33.0-13.9 loss for the Bengals
• All 10 of ESPN’s experts took the Patriots
• CBS Sports doesn’t have any of their eight experts taking Cincinnati
• All eight of SB Nations’ took New England over Cincinnati
• NFL Pick Watch, which takes into account picks from around the web, has the Bengals receiving one percent of the picks.

The Bengals are improved, and the Patriots are on a losing streak. But the caliber of these teams are still on very different levels. This is absolutely is Cincinnati’s toughest game out of the final three weeks, and no one should confuse that.

It was nice to see a few weeks where the Bengals were picked by a few experts or had close spreads, and we can expect that to return in the final two weeks. However, it appears the Patriots are onto Cincinnati after a disappointing stretch of games.