By Charles Jay
The Denver Broncos will be moving into the AFC playoffs as the West division champion, but they still have some hope to gain home-field advantage on the way to their attempt to reach the Super Bowl once again. After a tough road win in San Diego, they travel once again to face the Cincinnati Bengals in Monday night NFL betting action that kicks off at 8:30 PM ET at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati had emerged victorious in three road games in a row, before suffering a major hiccup in the fourth quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago. They allowed the Steelers to score 25 points in the fourth quarter and went down to a 42-21 defeat. At the moment, Cincinnati is 9-4-1 straight-up (7-7 ATS) and they are a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the AFC North. Denver is 11-3 straight-up, which ties them with New England for the best record in the AFC. However, since they lost to the Patriots, they will also lose any tiebreakers for home-field advantage. The Broncos, like the Bengals, are 7-7 against the football pointspread.
In the Monday night NFL betting odds that have been posted on this game by the people at Vietbet, the Broncos are favored on the road:
Denver Broncos -3 (-120)
Cincinnati Bengals +3 (+100)
Over 47.5 points -110
Under 47.5 points -110
Some of the attention focused on the Broncos this week has surrounded Peyton Manning, who suffered a minor thigh injury in last week’s game against San Diego. He had to go off to the locker room while backup Brock Osweiler stepped in for him. But this is clearly a minor issue, as no one anticipates Manning will have any trouble being in the starting lineup on Sunday.
Manning’s numbers have not been stellar as of late; over the last three games he has completed 45 out of 74 passes for 585 yards. These are certainly not the stats he’s been used to, considering his overall 67% accuracy and 37 touchdowns. However, Denver has won all three of those games, because they have concentrated a great deal on running the football.
Vietbet customers have to be impressed with the work done by CJ Anderson, who has 679 yards, although he has primarily played in the second half of the season, and Juwon Thompson, who has averaged 5.1 yards per carry spelling Anderson. It is important for Denver to establish something solid on the ground, as they know things are going to get physical in the post-season.
Monday night NFL bettors already know that this team can play some defense. In fact, there is no one in the league that forces three-and-outs with as much frequency is the Broncos do – they have gotten their opponents out quickly 31.3% of the time. And their 4.7 yards-per-play allowed on defense is better than the Seattle Seahawks, just to put it into perspective. So as Vietbet patrons can see, they are establishing some of the elements that could wind up being crucial to post-season success.
Cincinnati has gotten some surprising work out of rookie running back Jeremy Hill, who has a real shot at 1000 yards for the season (877 yards, five yards per carry). And of course, AJ Green (959 yards) is one of the most lethal wide receivers in the game. But if Denver, which gives up just 3.4 yards per rushing attempt, can slow down what the Bengals are trying to do over land, can Andy Dalton win this game with his arm? Dalton’s throwing range is considered to be somewhat limited, and his 15 touchdowns and fourteen interceptions on the season are nothing to be overly impressed about. He has been sacked only 18 times, but that is because many of his throws are of the “dink-and-dunk” variety.
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