Bengals open as near-touchdown underdog to Browns

The oddsmakers aren’t giving Cincinnati much respect against a team that just lost by 32 points and has lost four straight games.

By Jason Marcum@marcum89 Sep 14, 2020, 12:48pm EDT

Week 1 was a tough one for the state of Ohio.

For the Bengals, it was a heartbreaking loss in the final seconds to the Chargers, who escaped with a 16-13 win thanks to a questionable OPI call and an even more questionable kicker.

For the Browns, it was the biggest shellacking any NFL team has taken in Week 1, as they lost 38-6 to the Ravens. Dating back to last season, Cleveland has now lost four straight games, including a Week 17 defeat to these very Bengals.

Despite all of this, oddsmakers still aren’t giving Cincinnati much of a chance to win in Cleveland this Thursday in Round 1 of the Battle of Ohio. The initial spreads for Week 2 have the Browns favored by six points, which is a lot of points to give a team that looked as lost and disoriented in Week 1 as they did all of last year.

Then again, the Bengals are 3-22 over their last 25 games.

Time to earn some respect.