The Bengals are getting a kind of betting respect they rarely see.
Cincinnati is a 10-point favorite against the Tennessee Titans in Week 8, with BetMGM Sportsbook listing the Bengals at 10.5 points for the Nov. 1 game at Paycor Stadium. For a team that has spent much of the first seven weeks trying to find its footing, that’s a major number.
It’s also unusual company for Zac Taylor’s team. This is just the second time in the Taylor era that the Bengals have been installed as a double-digit favorite. The last time it happened, the result was a warning label: Cincinnati lost to the New York Jets in 2021.
That one stings a little more because of how it unfolded. After a road win in Baltimore that year, Joe Burrow said the Bengals "earned some respect that day."
Sportsbooks agreed, making Cincinnati a double-digit road favorite against the Jets for the first time since 1982. Then Mike White, in his first career start, threw for 400 yards and three touchdowns as the Jets pulled off a 34-31 upset at MetLife Stadium.
Now the setup feels familiar. The Bengals are coming off a comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens, and the 1-6 Titans are part of what looks like one of the softer remaining schedules in the league. That has made Cincinnati a popular Survivor Pool choice for Week 8, even if the spread history says winning and covering are not quite the same thing.
The NFL has already delivered plenty of chaos this season. Double-digit underdogs are 2-3 straight up but 4-1 against the spread.
Tennessee has already lived in that neighborhood, too, going to Baltimore as an 11.5-point underdog in Week 4 and losing 24-18. In each of the last two weeks, a double-digit dog has pulled off the outright shocker, with the Cardinals beating the Rams as 12.5-point underdogs in Week 6 and the Giants taking down the Texans in overtime last Sunday as 10-point underdogs.
Cincinnati’s own history in this spot is rougher than you might think. The Bengals have been a double-digit favorite 14 times, including 13 at home since 2000, and their ATS record in those games is 4-9-1.
They have won 11 of those 14 outright, but the number hasn’t been kind. The last time they won and covered as a double-digit favorite came in 2016, when A.J.
Green helped salvage a first-half Hail Mary from Andy Dalton in a 31-17 win over Cleveland as 11-point favorites.
Zac Taylor’s overall numbers as a favorite are much better. In 64 games in that role, his teams are 35-26-3 against the spread, a 54.6% cover rate.
But the picture changes when Joe Burrow is not involved: Taylor is 2-5-1 ATS without him. That includes an 0-3 ATS mark with Andy Dalton in 2019, a 2-1-1 ATS stretch with Jake Browning in 2023 and 0-1 with Joe Flacco last season.
Burrow, meanwhile, has been a reliable favorite from a betting standpoint, covering 58.9% of the time at 33-21-2 ATS.
So while Cincinnati has done enough to win games under Taylor and Burrow, its track record in this exact betting lane tells a different story. The Bengals are trying to build toward the playoffs for the first time since 2022, and a rare double-digit spread brings one more test: not just beating the Titans, but doing it in a way that avoids another uncomfortable memory.
In Other News...
Bengals Just Gained A Real AFC North Edge Over Pittsburgh
The Bengals win over the Ravens did more than bump Cincinnati to 4-2, it also strengthened the feeling that this team has a real path in the AFC North. A strength-of-schedule breakdown from Computer Cowboy on Twitter points to one of the more favorable remaining slates in the league for 2026, which helps explain why the Bengals are drawing plenty of attention as a playoff team with division-title upside.
November is where that edge starts to take shape on the field, with a run of games that should tell a lot about how sturdy Cincinnatis position really is. The Bengals still have to handle the week-to-week grind, but the combination of their early record and the schedule in front of them has them sitting in a better spot than most of their division competition right now. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Just Raised A Franchise-Altering Question After Crushing Baltimore
For one half, it looked like Cincinnati was staring at the same familiar problems. Then the Bengals flipped the game on Baltimore completely, rolling to a 35-13 win that suddenly gives this season a different feel. The offense did not find the end zone before halftime, but once the second half began, Joe Burrow and company turned the matchup into a showcase, and the defense matched it by keeping the Ravens out of rhythm and limiting them to 13 points.
Burrow finished with four touchdown passes, and the pass rush added four sacks as Cincinnati put together its most convincing performance of the year. It was also the kind of result that changes the conversation around a team, especially with the Bengals now riding a two-game winning streak and owning a plus-41 point margin on the season. After a start that left plenty of questions, the bigger issue now is what this version of Cincinnati might look like if it keeps showing up. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Burrow Just Turned The Bengals Into An MVP Watch Team
Joe Burrow and the Bengals came out of Week 7 looking much more like the kind of team that can hang around the AFC race than the one that stumbled through stretches earlier in the year. Cincinnatis 35-13 win over Baltimore was not just a divisional statement, it was another reminder that when Burrow is locked in, the offense can look every bit like one of the leagues most dangerous units. The victory gave the Bengals a marquee result against a Ravens team that had been one of their measuring sticks, and it came with Burrow steering a second-half surge that strengthened his case in the NFLs award conversation.
Burrows MVP buzz is no longer just a byproduct of big-name recognition. He has climbed into the thicker part of the race, and the next stretch of games will go a long way toward showing whether this is a real push or just an early-season spike. The competition at the top is crowded, which means every efficient outing and every win matters even more for Cincinnati, especially if Burrow keeps pairing production with results in games that carry real weight. [Read more 🡒]