NFL betting is expected to be very competitive on the game between the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Both teams are coming off losses where they let games slip away. The Bears lost in football betting at Atlanta while Cincinnati lost at home to Houston.
NFL betting slightly favors the Bengals in this game. The Bears probably feel like they should be 4-1 instead of 3-2 after losing last week in Atlanta. The Bears had chances in the red zone against the Falcons but continually made mistakes that cost them the game in football betting. “We had a lot of opportunities to win this football game,” Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “You can’t make those kind of mistakes. When you get the ball in the red zone, you need to get points.” That was the second consecutive year in NFL betting that the Bears and Falcons played a game that went down to the wire. In this year’s game the Bears had four possessions inside the Atlanta 20 and scored just once.
The Bengals have a similar feeling heading into this week’s NFL betting game against the Bears. The Bengals were shut out in the second half against Houston. It is the fifth time in six football betting games that the Bengals have not scored at least 24 points. Going back even farther, the Bengals have scored less than 24 points in nine of Carson Palmer’s last ten starts. And it really hurt against Houston in NFL betting since the Bengals had 17 points at the half. The Bengals only gave Cedric Benson the ball four times in the second half, despite working against the Texans poor rush defense. “I don’t want to say we’re stalling — we’re not consistent,” Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said, “We’re not gelling the way we should be. The way Ced is running the ball, the way the receivers are making plays, it should be a lot easier.”
The Bears and Bengals do not play that often in NFL betting. Their last meeting was in 2005 in Chicago and the Bengals got the 24-7 road victory in football betting. The only other NFL betting this decade came in 2001 as the Bears won 24-0 at Cincinnati. Sunday’s matchup is critical for both teams since a win gets the Bears to 4-2 while a win would have Cincinnati getting to 5-2.