Cincinnati Bengals vs. Chicago Bears September 19 Betting Preview

The Cincinnati Bengals travel to Soldier Field in week 2 to take on the Chicago Bears on Sunday at 1 pm EST on FOX. The Bengals were able to get a good week 1 win against the Minnesota Vikings at home with a last-second field goal in overtime.

The Bears fell to the Los Angeles Rams 34-14 as they struggled to get anything started offensively with Andy Dalton as their quarterback.

Yes, I said Andy Dalton. If he starts on Sunday, the Bengals will want to get a little revenge for the years of minimal success with him at the Bengals quarterback. There is no bad blood between the Bengals and Andy Dalton, but I know many Bengals fans were not too happy with the lack of progression for the team with him as the leader.

Odds

The Bears are only a 2 point favorite in this game with odds of -110 to side with the Bengals. Those same odds are set to pick the Bengals +2. The over/under for the game stands at 45.5 and has the same odds as betting the spread at -110. The Moneyline for the Bears and Bengals are -145 and +125, respectively.

Key Factors

The main key factor to how this game will go is if the Bears continue to use Andy Dalton as their main quarterback option. Justin Fields got some chances here and there to come in and run some plays, but the majority of the snaps went to Dalton.

Joe Burrow’s health is also another slight concern. He did not suffer any serious injury during the game, but Bengals fans were holding their breath after he stood up limping after being sacked. The Bengals noticeably ran the ball much more after this hit to protect Burrow.

If the Bengals want to win football games, they are going to need to be confident enough in their offensive line to throw the ball, but also, priority number 1 is to keep Joe Burrow healthy.

Lastly, the ability of the Bengals' defense to get takeaways will be crucial in this game. Whether young Justin Fields or mistake-prone Andy Dalton take the field, there will be opportunities to force turnovers. The Bengals will need these takeaways to win this game on the road. It depends on which Bengals defense shows up on Sunday.

Game Prediction

The Bengals have the potential to go 2-0 and be in sole possession of 1st place in the AFC North going into week 3. This, in itself, will make Bengals fans excited and should make these young Bengals even more excited.

The line from this game started at 3.5 points and has moved to only 2 points since. Bettors know that this will be a close game. It will come down to a few crucial plays that the Bengals will need to execute if they want to win this game.