Bengals Open as Rare Betting Underdogs in Houston Amidst Projected Easy 2026 Schedule

The Bengals are facing one of their rare betting underdog challenges of the entire regular season this week. Cincinnati is trying to win back-to-back games across the opening weeks in consecutive seasons, and they are three-point underdogs to do so.

Houston holds favorite status on the DraftKings Sportsbook, with Cincinnati +124 on the moneyline, while the Texans are -148 home favorites.

The Bengals are favored in most games this season, but have to overcome this challenge and take out a contender on their side of the conference ledger.

Cincinnati turned the ball over once and got a bit lucky based on averages to recover all four fumbles Sunday against Tampa Bay. They have to keep creating their own luck this week and get Ja'Marr Chase going (12 yards in Week 1).

“I didn’t feel that. I felt like we just weren’t forcing balls," Zac Taylor said about Chase's light target share. "The ball was just going where it needed to go. At halftime, we’re writing plays up on the board, and I asked if we had thrown an incompletion yet. It just didn’t feel like that. It felt like we were in a really good rhythm. We weren’t in many second-and-longs. We were in third-and-manageables. So, the performance for Joe (Burrow) was really good. I know he’s already mad about the pick-six, but he manages the game really well for us. There were some tough looks there at the end of the game, and he stepped up and delivered.

"He gave his guys a chance, and his guys came up big for him. I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job. We had some holes in the run game, especially early on, and then the protection overall. That is a really difficult blitz package they have overall. We had a long time to study it, and they had a long time to study us. That’s a huge credit to Dan Pitcher, Justin Hill, and all of our coaches that put the time and effort to analyze every blitz they’ve ever gotten. Our guys stepped up and did a good job handling it.”

Check out more betting odds for Week 2 here.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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