The Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals face off in Sunday Night Football. The game is scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on NBC. Currently the odds for the game have the Cardinals favored at home.
Cincinnati has already dropped their previous two preseason games. What might be the most concerning is that in defeats to the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets is the Bengals gave up a combined 66 points. Surely it's only the preseason and today, their third game, is considered to be the closest thing to a real game for them. The defense will have to play better today if the Bengals are going to beat the Cardinals.
Arizona beat up on the Houston Texans (32-0) in their opener before losing to the Minnesota Vikings last week, 30-28. The Cardinals had the best rush defense in the league last season and did fairly well their opening two preseason games as well. They will want to slow down the Bengals offensive attack today, which could allow them to pick up a win in this one.
Expect quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Carson Palmer to play close to a half. By looking at the other games in the third week of the preseason, we've seen that a good amount of starters have been on the field for a decent amount of time and there's no reason to think that should change here tonight.
Overall, Cincinnati is a better football team than Arizona. The Cardinals are pretty good, but they also play in arguably the toughest division in football which also features the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams. Those guaranteed six games per season can certainly take a toll on a team.
We like Cincinnati to win tonight. They're 0-2 and haven't found a way to win yet, but it's still the preseason. Yet, a team probably doesn't want to go winless as they prepare for the season, so we expect a solid performance from the Bengals tonight.
Free Pick: Cincinnati 26, Arizona 20
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