Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl 56 Odds
The Cincinnati Bengals will play the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, February 13, 2022. The Bengals franchise will be making their third appearance in the Super Bowl; in their previous two Super Bowls they faced the San Francisco 49ers. At 3-0, Cincinnati is one of two teams that have played in and never lost a Conference Championship game in the Super Bowl era. The Bengals have scored at least 18 points in each of their three postseason games this season. Per Elias, Cincinnati had scored 17 points or fewer in each of their previous seven playoff games, which was the longest streak in NFL history. The Bengals 18-point comeback over the Kansas City Chiefs tied the 2006 Indianapolis Colts for the largest comeback victory in Conference Championship game history.
Cincinnati Bengals Betting Odds
The Bengals are a 4.5-point underdog against the Rams in Super Bowl LVI. This season Cincinnati is 13-7 against the spread; 6-4 as the home team in which they are designated despite playing in the Rams home stadium. The money line for Cincinnati, as of the writing of this article is +165. For historical perspective, the Bengals were a one-point underdog to the 49ers in Super Bowl XVI, losing 26-21 and were a six-point underdog to San Francisco in Super Bowl XXIII, losing 20-16. Under is 5-0 in the Bengals last five playoff games as an underdog. Over is 5-0 in the Bengals last five games after allowing more than 350 total yards in their previous game; the Chiefs gained 375 total yards in the AFC Championship game. In their three playoff wins this season, Cincinnati is averaging 24 points per game and allowing 19.7 points per game. Under is 7-0 in the Bengals last seven playoff games.
Cincinnati Bengals Analysis
Cincinnati quarterback, Joe Burrow has been phenomenal this season in leading the Bengals to the AFC North title and now one win away from a Super Bowl championship. It’s almost been forgotten that he was coming off a catastrophic knee injury, that ended his season early last year. In his “comeback” season, including the playoffs, the Bengals second year signal caller has thrown for 5,453 yards and 38 touchdowns. Dating back to his days at LSU, the young quarterback is 7-0 in his career in postseason games. With 842 passing yards these playoffs, Burrow passes Ken Anderson (653 in 1981) with the most passing yards in a single postseason in Cincinnati’s history. The Bengals number 9 is +225 to win the Super Bowl MVP, if Cincinnati pulls the upset, I’d be stunned if he wasn’t the MVP of the game. Due to a porous offensive line, he has been sacked 51 times in the regular season; 12 times during the three playoff games this campaign. The Rams’ defense was third in the NFL during the regular season with 50 quarterback sacks. To me the biggest key in the game for the Bengals is to keep Burrow clean and off the ground. While the Cincinnati quarterback has managed to dust himself off and stay calm in the pocket, despite all the hits, it certainly can catch up to you quickly; think Super Bowl XLII, when the New York Giants relentlessly hit Tom Brady and how that wore down one of the two “coolest” quarterbacks of all-time (Joe Montana being the other). The Bengals don’t want to play with fire when it comes to the Rams pass rush led by Aaron Donald and Von Miller.
Rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase has been dominant this year. In 17 regular season games Chase caught 81 passes for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns: including setting the rookie record for receiving yards in a game with 266 (vs. Kansas City in week 17). Including the playoffs, the fifth pick overall in the 2021 draft now has scored 14 touchdowns, only Randy Moss with 19 in 1998 has more among rookies in the Super Bowl era, per NFL.com. With 279 yards receiving in the playoffs, Chase has surpassed Torry Holt (242 in 1999) for the most receiving yards in the postseason by a rookie since at least 1950, per Elias. If the Bengals can get their stud receiver the ball they’ll be in good shape, it’ll be interesting to see who covers who and what type of coverage (man to man or zone) Los Angeles will play. As of mid-week, Ja’Marr Chase is +1800 to win the Super Bowl MVP, a good value for a Cincinnati player not named Burrow. If the Bengals top target is bottled up, Tee Higgins, 74 catches for 1,091 yards and six touchdowns and Tyler Boyd, 828 yards receiving this season can do a lot of damage vertically.
To counteract the Los Angeles pass rush, Cincinnati should look a running some delayed handoffs and screen passes to their star running back Joe Mixon. He rushed for 1,205 yards in the regular season (third best in the NFL) and caught 42 passes for 342 yards. The Oklahoma product accounted for 16 touchdowns this year (13 rushing and three receiving) and is a danger to go the distance anytime he has the football. Mixon at +4500 could be an interesting MVP selection; the last running back to win Super Bowl MVP was Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII.
On the defense, Cincinnati has allowed 337.3 yards of total offense and 88 rushing yards per game through three playoff contests this season. They’re also tied with Tampa Bay for the league lead in turnovers with seven (six interceptions and one fumble recovery); this is a recipe for success for the Bengals. In their last two wins they had a key interception off a Ryan Tannehill pass with under two minutes to go against Tennessee in the divisional round and had two big interceptions of Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship game; including one that set up the game winning field goal in overtime. The Cincinnati defensive ability to get turnovers could be what ends up making them Super Bowl champions.