October 16, 2018
NBC gets an excellent matchup of division leaders as the Cincinnati Bengals visit the Kansas City Chiefs – Kansas City’s second straight Sunday night game. The Chiefs are 6-point favorites and will be our against the spread pick. The total is 59 points for this Bengals vs. Chiefs betting matchup.
It’s the point of the season where the NFL allows NBC to flex games into the Sunday night window, and the network had little interest in what likely will be a Rams blowout over a bad 49ers team, so it was kicked to the afternoon for this AFC contest.
It’s the first meeting between the teams since Cincinnati won its fourth straight in the series, 36-21 at home in October 2015.
Whether you root for them or not personally, it’s tough to argue that the Chiefs aren’t the most fun team to watch in the NFL this year if you like offense. They have gamebreakers all over, from young QB Patrick Mahomes to tailback Kareem Hunt to perhaps the fastest player in the league, receiver/return man Tyreek Hill (nicknamed “Cheetah”).
Kansas City hung 40 points on the Patriots in Foxborough on Sunday night, which is pretty darn rare. Hill had three receiving touchdowns and Mahomes threw four of them. Alas, the Kansas City defense is about as bad as its offense is good, and the Chiefs became the last AFC team to lose in a 43-40 wild affair. It was the first-ever NFL game to end with that score. If this team flops again in the playoffs, it surely will be the defense’s fault because that offense is sensational. If they keep this up, their NFL odds will keep going up and up.
The Bengals had sole possession of first place in the AFC North, but dropped into a tie Sunday when they lost their seventh straight to the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens also won.
Cincinnati took a 21-20 lead on Pittsburgh thanks to Joe Mixon’s 4-yard run with just over a minute left. However, the Steelers drove down the field and won it on Antonio Brown’s 31-yard TD catch-and-run off a pass from Ben Roethlisberger with 10 seconds left. Somehow, Brown wasn’t touched.
Just a gut-punching loss for the Bengals, who seem to do this all the time against the Steelers. In addition, Cincinnati lost a few key defensive guys to injury. It’s not exactly a good time to be short-handed on that side of the ball.
The Bengals vs. Chiefs betting line has largely stayed steady (some books do it have Chiefs -5.5). The total has risen a half-point.