The Cincinnati Bengals are once again underdogs in the early goings of the 2019 season.
Interestingly, the line for their Week 3 road contest against the Buffalo Bills isn’t that bad. The Bengals open as 5.5-point underdogs (odds via BETMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds).
Not bad, considering Dallas is favored by 21 points over Miami and about six other games as of this writing have bigger discrepancies than Cincinnati-Buffalo.
Even so, it isn’t hard to see why the line aligns as so. The Bengals looked good on the road in Week 1 despite losing to Seattle, yet laid an egg of gigantic proportions in Week 2, losing 41-17 in a home opener against San Franciso.
Part of the reason the line might be smaller than expected is oddsmakers aren’t fully believing the Bills yet. They’re 2-0, but wins over both New York teams aren’t overly impressive. Those were road wins, but neither of those teams have picked up a win yet.
Still, the Bills are at home, the ground game is averaging 4.7 yards per carry and Josh Allen is completing 64.2 percent of his passes with four total scores and two picks.
While this might feel more winnable to Bengals fans, it is hard to predict exactly what sort of product the team will put on the field at this point. Betting them one way or another seems ill-advised until we know more about the week-to-week performance.
