Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets Betting Preview: Week 8 NFL Picks

Cincinnati has been impressive this season exceeding expectations with a record of 5-2 and ranking 7th in the NFL Power Rankings. New York has been pretty much what everyone expected with an underwhelming start of the season with a record of 1-5 and ranking 31st out of 32 teams in the NFL

Odds

The Bengals come into this game red hot and looking to win another matchup on the road as a 10.5 point favorite. Their odds are -110 to win at that spread. The Jets have the odds of -115 to cover at +10.5. The over/under for the game is set at 42.5 with the same odds of -110 to bet the over or the under.

The Bengals are 4-3 against the spread this season compared to the Jets who are 1-5 against the spread in their matchups.

How the Bengals and Jets Matchup

The Bengals rank at or better tenth in most offensive and defensive stat rankings which is impressive considering that they were expected to underperform this season. Notably, they are seventh in points per game and third in yards per play. On the defensive side, they rank fifth in opponent points per game and third in opponent points per play.

The most surprising stat for the Bengals is that they rank second in penalties per play and first in penalty yards per game on the offensive side. The defense is also in the top ten in penalties per game. For a team that has often struggled with costly penalties in the past, you can’t help but attribute their success to removing unnecessary mistakes from their game.

For the Jets, it’s a completely different story. Offensively, they rank last in points per game, rush yards per game, touchdowns per game, and that is only the start. They are slightly better on the defensive side but not by much. They rank 19th in opponent touchdowns per game and tenth in opponent yards per rush.

Keys to the Game

The key for the Bengals is to wear this Jets team down and take away any hope for the Jets to win this game early. If they are able to prevent turnovers and stick to the way they have been playing, they will have no issues.

The Jets need takeaways to win this game. Their offense is not good enough to score points on their own and will need good field position to put the pressure on the Bengals.

It is hard to imagine anything besides the Bengals winning this one and winning it by a large margin. This is a tale of two teams: one pleasantly in playoff contention top of the AFC North and the other looking to rebuild for next season.