Thursday Night Football: Cats Take on the Fish
The Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals will battle on Thursday Night Football. Will the upstart Dolphins keep on winning or will the Bengals return to last year's championship caliber team?
Thursday Night Football this week once again features a premier matchup when the Miami Dolphins (3-0) visit the Cincinnati Bengals (1-2).
The Dolphins come in on a short week as the AFC's only remaining undefeated team. Even more impressive, the Dolphins toppled the Buffalo Bills last week, who have been the Super Bowl betting favourites.
However, Miami's biggest challenge will be taking on the defending AFC champions who appear to be back in sync following a slow 0-2 start to their season. The Bengals climbed back into contention with last week's win versus the NY Jets and now have a great chance to get to 2-2 and a share of the division lead with a victory.
This matchup also highlights two former SEC foes -- quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Joe Burrow -- who will meet in the NFL for the first time.
Oddsmakers at Spreads.ca like the Bengals' chances and make Cincinnati 3.5-point favourites. The O/U is 47.5.
TNF kickoff happens at 8:15 pm EDT.
Prediction (powered by Pointspreads.ca):
There's some doubt about the condition of Tua Tagovailoa who was hit hard against the turf during the Bills game. That didn't stop him from returning to start the second half, but it opened up an NFLPA investigation into whether concussion protocol was handled properly.
We think that's a tipping point here for a wager on Cincinnati.
Home teams do well on the shorter prep time (both teams played just 4 days ago). The Bengals are more desperate for a win. And Miami was thoroughly outplayed last week and most of the previous win at Baltimore. Eventually, the stats will catch up with the Dolphins and it likely happens on Thursday.
We'll bet on the hungrier cats to gobble up the fish and cover -3.5 points.
