Bengals open as road favorites vs. Lions

The Cincinnati Bengals have opened as favorites just once this season. They’ll get that claim again as they travel to Motor City this coming weekend against the Jared Goff-led Detroit Lions.

The Lions haven’t won a single game this season under new head coach Dan Campbell, but one thing is for certain: they play hard. While they haven’t won, they have covered the spread in two of their last three games against the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens.

Now, they have also suffered a couple of blowouts, one to the Green Bay Packers. The Lions are far from perfect, and the opening spread shows just that. The Bengals have opened as 3.5-point favorites, according to DraftKings.

Additionally, ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Cincinnati a 55.9% chance of victory.

The Bengals, had just a couple of plays gone their way in both losses, would be 5-0. However, they’re now sitting at 3-2, and they badly need to win this week to not only get that bad taste out of their mouth, but also beat arguably the easiest team left on a schedule that still includes four games vs. the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens, as well as the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs.

They had chances to win at home against Green Bay, and they need to take that aggression into Detroit and come out on top.

As far as betting, it’s actually pretty shocking that the Bengals are just 3.5-point favorites. The Packers were on the road in Cincinnati in Week 5 and were 3-point favorites. The Bengals are essentially to the Lions what the Packers are to the Bengals, at least in the eyes of oddsmakers.