Bengals open as slight favorite over Chargers

The Cincinnati Bengals are 7-4 following their 41-10 thrashing of divisional opponent Pittsburgh, and while they’re No. 2 in the AFC North, they should be set for a Wild Card berth if they can keep up their high level of play.

They’ll be tested in Week 13 though as Cincinnati will welcome the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers against Bengals will long be judged as the two quarterbacks taken in the top few picks of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Joe Burrow vs. Justin Herbert.

For now, Vegas says the teams are relatively even.

The Bengals are coming in as 3-point favorites, per DraftKings. However, sportsbooks typically give a team around three points for having home-field advantage, which has traditionally been better than worse for teams.

This isn’t a shocking number. The Bengals defense has had a few huge letdown performances, most notably against the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. There’s no reason to think they’ll undoubtedly shut down Herbert.

On the other side of the ball, the Bengals offense has been rolling, scoring 30-plus points in each of the last two weeks. The Bengals ran all over the Steelers as Joe Mixon hit a career-high in rushing yards, and the Chargers will come to the Queen City with, by far, the NFL’s worst rush defense. That could be problematic for Los Angeles.

That said, the Chargers lost their battle in the AFC West in Week 12. It was an embarrassing defeat against the Denver Broncos. Now, the Chargers are sitting at 6-5 and riding a 28-13 loss. The Chargers are 2-4 over their last six.

The Bengals should arguably be bigger favorites given the stride each team is currently in.