Bengals Steelers Line

Written by Steve Janus

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals will face off for the second time this season. The Steelers went into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals 24-17 back in week 10, and will try and back up that win by knocking off Cincinnati at home. Pittsburgh is currently tied with Baltimore on top the AFC North at 8-3, while the Bengals sit just a game back at 7-4. Not only do the Bengals need this game to stay in the mix inside their own division, but they are just a game ahead of Denver, New York (Jets), and Tennessee for the final Wild Card spot.

Taking a look at the week 13 NFL spreads, oddsmakers currently have Pittsburgh favored by 6.5-points over the Bengals with the total set at 42 points.

Cincinnati Bengals:

After losing back-to-back games against division rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore, the Bengals avoided a third straight division loss by rallying to beat the Browns 23-20 last Sunday. Cincinnati trailed 17-7 at half and were down 20-10 with just 3:50 left in the third quarter, but scored the games final 13 points to keep their playoff hopes alive.

While it took the Bengals offense some time to get going, they ended up putting up 389 yards of total offense on the board. Andy Dalton went 21 of 31 for 270 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jermaine Gresham.

Cedric Benson carried it 21 times for 106 yards and a score, and rookie wide out A.J. Green had three catches for 110 yards.

The trio of Dalton, Benson, and Green didn’t exactly have their best games the first time they played Pittsburgh. Dalton went just 15 of 30 for 170 yards with two touchdowns and two picks, Benson was held to just 57 yards on 15 attempts, and Green had just one catch for 36 yards (touchdown).

Still the Bengals had their chance to win that game. If they can find a way to make a couple more big plays this time around, they might just end up winning this game.

Pittsburgh Steelers:

The Steelers got everything they could handle in a 13-9 win over the struggling Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. Offensively the Steelers played a pretty poor game all around. They had just 290 yards of total offense with two turnovers. If it wasn’t for their defense they probably would have lost that game.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for just 190 yards with one touchdown and two turnovers, while Rashard Mendenhall managed just 57 yards rushing on 17 attempts. That kind of performance might get you a win over the Chiefs, but they will have to play better if they want to come away with another win over Cincinnati.

In the first game against the Bengals, Pittsburgh jumped out to 14-0 less than 12 minutes into the game. From that point on the Steelers offense was held in check until they finally managed to break through with a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

While Roethlisberger had 245 yards and a touchdown on 21 of 33 passing, Mendenhall was held to just 44 yards on 16 attempts. At the time of this game Roethlisberger was playing some of his best football, but you have to wonder if his recent thumb injury didn’t play a role in his struggles against Kansas City.

It’s hard to imagine the Steelers getting a lot more from the ground game this time around, which means Roethlisberger and the passing game are going to have to make plays for Pittsburgh to win this game.

Betting Trends:

Cincinnati is 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games as a road underdog of 3.5-10.0.

Pittsburgh is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite of 3.5-10.0.

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this week in the NFL.

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