Preseason betting – How to beat Cincinnati Bengals +5½ at New York Giants

The Cincinnati Bengals, surprising AFC champions of 2021, take on the perpetually-rebuilding New York Giants this coming Sunday in NFL preseason week 2 action. Is this game worth betting? O, probably! Allow NFLbets to take a closer look at…

Cincinnati Bengals +5½ at New York Giants, over/under 39 points

First takeaway from this line is the obvious: Clearly, bookmarkers aren’t expecting the Bengals starters to play much in this one. In preseason week 1, Cincinnati lost convincingly to the Arizona Cardinals, 36-23, with the Bengals scoring touchdowns only in the fourth quarter. The Giants got help from a pick-six of prospective third-string New England Patriots QB Bailey Zappe, whose last name should really include an exclamation point, to win 23-21 in their first preseason game.

 With the Bengals and Giants both earning five scores last week, the first bet we’ll recommend to NFL bettors is to take the over on an O/U of 39 points. Heck, the Bengals were a middling defense last year – e.g. ranking 17th in points allowed, 18th in yards allowed – the second team is going up against the Giants, and Jessie Bates is still a contract holdout. (That’s more of a note for the regular season, but still.)

Even though safety Dax Hill and DL Joseph Ossai *will* go for Cincinnati, NFLbets isn’t quite sure that’s quite enough to keep the Giants under 20. But let’s keep things interesting. As of this writing, 10 of 23 preseason games have had a score differential of 5 points or less; we’ll say that number trends closer to 50%. Take the Cincinnati Bengals +5½ vs New York.