1 day Ago By Timothy McBride, Gridiron Heroics
Every single season, the Cincinnati Bengals generate serious concern after they start the season off lethargically. After all, head coach Zac Taylor has reached an embarrassing record of 1-11 in the first two games of the season. Even after a soft Week 1 matchup with a relatively talentless New England Patriots roster, this team has once again started the season off in a 0-2 hole.
Whether or not they’ll be able to pull off some late-season magic like they have in previous years is still the biggest question on the entire fanbase’s mind. Cincinnati Bengals Have Perfect Matchup to Bounce Back in Week 3 While most teams that start off with such a poor record would already start to have diminished expectations, Cincinnati is clearly given tremendous leeway after several seasons in a row and has had tremendous success down the stretch. That being said, their opponents in Week 3 are the Washington Commanders .
Washington has become one of the most beleaguered teams in the NFL after struggling to find a quarterback who can effectively lead the offense. Entering from stage right, rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is going to desperately try to change that after he was selected by Washington out of LSU with the second overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. Daniels is an explosive playmaker who an uncharacteristically undisciplined Cincinnati defense is likely to struggle with even though the rookie is naturally prone to make mistakes.
One of the key tasks of the Cincinnati defense will be to use talented pass rusher Trey Hendrickson to contain Daniels and dictate how the Washington offense is able to run. Bengals Given Excellent Odds Against Weak Competition After considering all of the matchups, fans have already placed their bets and it appears that Cincinnati is heavily favored. According to BetMGM NFL odds , Cincinnati is a 7.
5-point favorite already and the money line is listed as -400 for a Cincinnati victory and +310 for a Commanders victory. The over/under on the game is 48.5 indicating that this is anticipated to be a high-scoring matchup.
While 1-2 may not be an ideal start to the season for Cincinnati, there is already tremendous pressure on this team to avoid the terrifying concept of a 0-3 start. If Cincinnati fails to defeat Washington, there could be serious drama in the Queen City all next week. This article first appeared on Gridiron Heroics and was syndicated with permission.
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