The Bengals are in an unusual spot heading into Houston: they’re not the team carrying the favorite label. Cincinnati is listed as a three-point underdog as it tries to win back-to-back games across the opening weeks in consecutive seasons, with the Texans taking favorite status at DraftKings Sportsbook.
The moneyline reflects that setup as well, with Cincinnati at +124 and Houston at -148 at home.
That’s a notable position for a Bengals team that is favored in most games this season, but this week asks them to clear a tougher hurdle against a contender on their side of the conference ledger.
After turning the ball over once in Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay, Cincinnati also benefited from a little good fortune by recovering all four fumbles. The challenge now is to keep manufacturing those breaks while also getting Ja’Marr Chase more involved after he finished with 12 yards in Week 1.
Zac Taylor said he didn’t see the passing game as overly force-fed toward Chase.
“I didn’t feel that. I felt like we just weren’t forcing balls," Zac Taylor said about Chase's light target share.
"The ball was just going where it needed to go. At halftime, we’re writing plays up on the board, and I asked if we had thrown an incompletion yet.
It just didn’t feel like that. It felt like we were in a really good rhythm.
We weren’t in many second-and-longs. We were in third-and-manageables.
So, the performance for Joe (Burrow) was really good. I know he’s already mad about the pick-six, but he manages the game really well for us.
There were some tough looks there at the end of the game, and he stepped up and delivered.
"He gave his guys a chance, and his guys came up big for him. I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job.
We had some holes in the run game, especially early on, and then the protection overall. That is a really difficult blitz package they have overall.
We had a long time to study it, and they had a long time to study us. That’s a huge credit to Dan Pitcher, Justin Hill, and all of our coaches that put the time and effort to analyze every blitz they’ve ever gotten.
Our guys stepped up and did a good job handling it.”
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
In Other News...
Bengals Win Hid A Surprising Early Grade Split
Pro Football Focus Week 1 grades offered a revealing snapshot of Cincinnatis win over Tampa Bay, and the offensive and defensive takeaways did not line up neatly. Mike Gesicki paced the offense with a 90.1 overall grade, giving the Bengals a clear bright spot in the passing game, while Joe Burrows 66.1 grade was a more middling note for a quarterback whose team still found a way to leave with a win.
On the other side of the ball, Barrett Carter and Boye Mafe both landed above 77, with Carter posting a career-high 80.5, and Dexter Lawrence added a strong 77.6 grade along with three pressures. The overall picture was less tidy for Cincinnatis defense, though, because some familiar names came in much lower, including Myles Murphy and Jonathan Allen, leaving the Bengals with a useful early reminder that a victory can still come with a split verdict underneath it. [Read more 🡒]
Russell Wilson Just Pushed Bengals Fans Into A Joe Burrow Debate
Russell Wilsons first turn as an NFL Today analyst on CBS stirred things up in Cincinnati almost immediately, and not because of anything he said about his own future. Wilson floated the idea that if the Bengals dont perform well this year, Joe Burrow could be gone, a comment that landed loudly with a fan base that already treats every Burrow development like a franchise referendum.
Burrow is under contract through 2029 and has publicly said he is committed to the Bengals, which is why Wilsons speculation set off so much pushback on social media. For Bengals fans, the debate is less about what Burrow has said and more about how much outside noise it takes before a star quarterback becomes the subject of one more round of anxious what-ifs. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Finally Looked Complete But One Week 1 Debate Isnt Going Away
For one Sunday, the Bengals looked a lot closer to the finished product they spent the summer trying to build. Cincinnati handled Tampa Bay 33-27 behind four defensive takeaways and an offense that was steady enough to complement the pressure the defense created, with Joe Burrow moving better and the new faces on that side of the ball showing up right away.
Still, even after a win that checked a lot of boxes, one Week 1 discussion did not go away. The performance was encouraging enough to give the Bengals a real early-season foundation, but it also left just enough room for the kind of debate that tends to follow this team when the opener is over and the league starts picking apart what worked, what didn't, and what comes next. [Read more 🡒]