NFL Week 1 – Cincinnati Bengals vs New England Patriots Preview
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(Last Years Record) CINCINNATI (10 – 7) at NEW ENGLAND (10 – 7)
Date/Time: Sunday, Sept. 12 — 1 p.m.
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
Bengals vs. Patriots Lines
MoneyLine: Bengals +190 / Patriots -220
Spread: Patriots -4.5
Over/Under: 45
Cincinnati Bengals vs. New England Patriots Preview
Is it too early for a trap game? If the Bengals have to play the Patriots in Foxboro this year, opening day is the time to do it. New England enters the season with defense filled with average (Derrick Burgess, Tully Banta-Cain, Gerard Warren) players on the front line and a slew of youngsters in the secondary. The Pats appear ill-equipped to handle any kind of decent passing game, and the Bengals also have a solid running game (Cedric Benson) to add to the mix.
All in all, is spells major trouble in Foxboro. And to make matters even worse, New England has to be looking ahead to a Week 2 battle against the Jets in New Jersey.
A steady rash of injuries may prevent Carson Palmer from ever being the quarterback he was predicted to be, but if he can snake into the top third that should be good enough.
The passing game now has two legitimate deep threats (Ochocinco and Owens), and rookie tight end Jermaine Gresham is ready to get more than his share of underneath table scraps.
Based on exhibition results it’s hard to see how the Patriots can deal with any of that, but NE lives and dies with Tom Brady’s arm and Bill Belichick’s game-planning, so we’’ll see if the Pats can scheme their way through 60 minutes against Cincy.
Patriots fans need to get used to opponents moving the ball this season. With Ty Warren out for the year, the Patriots figure to get next to no pressure on the pocket, and even a somewhat inconsistent Palmer should be able to move the chains against NE’s read-and-react style.
In three of their four exhibitions the Pats kept their safeties deep and were scorched (especially by the Rams and Giants) in the middle of the field.
Defensive issues will put tremendous stress on the Patriots offense, which figures to be better than last year’s if not anywhere as good as the 2007 bunch which broke tons of records on the way to scoring 589 points. Brady is Brady, Wes Welker is back, Randy Moss appears motivated for now, and NE may have solved its tight end issues with the addition of rookies Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.
No one is quite sure how the running back situation will play out, but the options are either the hugely unpopular Laurence Maroney or the aged combination of Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris.
Interesting Stat: CINCINNATI is 94-125 ATS (-43.5 Units) against conference opponents since 1992.
Picks: Cincinnati +4.5 and Over 45
Unless weather intervenes and is a major factor, there should be lots of points on the board by the time this one comes to an exhausting halt.
Neither team has defensive playmakers, and while the Patriots have the potential to tighten things up. Excepting the 2008 game in which Brady was hurt, the Over is 6-1 in New England home openers since 2002. Pick is to take the Over and Cincy +4.5.
