Bengals Giants Odds
The New York Giants are off to a 2-0 start and will try and keep the ball rolling when they welcome the Cincinnati Bengals to the Meadowlands on Sunday, September 21st. Last year the defending Super Bowl champs lost their first two games before turning things around, but this year’s team has been focused right from the start. The odds makers think they’ll keep things going this week as the Giants are favored by 13 over the Bengals with the total at 41.5.
New York’s first game came on Thursday night of Week 1, and it was a fairly boring and methodical 16-7 win over the Redskins. Things didn’t become too boring for the offense in Week 2 as the Giants beat the Rams 41-13 last Sunday.
It wasn’t just the offense looking good, as the defense piled up six sacks and held the Rams to only 201 total yards of offense. Defense end Justin Tuck got two of those sacks and picked off a pass for a 41-yard touchdown return. Fred Robbins also played well by recording two sacks.
The Giant offense also rebounded well from being shutout in the second half of the Redskins game. Quarterback Eli Manning had three touchdown passes while New York ran for 203 yards behind the three-headed monster of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward, and Ahmad Bradshaw. With things clicking so well for this team right now, critics that were saying last year’s team got hot at the right time are looking fairly stupid. But then again maybe they are providing the motivation for a team that came out ready to play against the woeful Rams. We’ll find out when they face their second straight weaker opponent in Cincinnati.
The Bengals lost 24-7 last week to a Tennessee Titans team playing without their starting quarterback, Vince Young. Cincinnati’s star quarterback struggled to find his game in the windy conditions at Paul Brown Stadium, getting picked off twice and throwing for only 134 yards and no scores. Chad Johnson still hasn’t got his season going, being limited to just four catches for 37 yards a week ago.
This offense needs to find a way to get going after scoring just one touchdown in their first two games. They might matchup well against the Giants, who are known for getting heat on the quarterback. The Bengals offensive linemen though have only allowed Palmer to be sacked three times, which leads the league.
The defense is going to have it’s hands full against the Giants rushing game. The Bengals gave up 177 rushing yards to the Titans, and now stand at 30th in the league with 203 yards per game allowed on the ground.
