What I said last week about Cincinnati still holds. They are a much different (better) team than the team that started the season. They outplayed Baltimore last week but handed the game away at the end. The Bengals have been one play away from winning their last three home games. John Kitna is outplaying most NFL QB’s over the past few weeks and don’t forget about Corey Dillon.
Carolina will be without star defensive end Julius Peppers. He will be noticeably missed. Peppers had 12 sacks in twelve games and was on pace to set the rookie record. Peppers isn’t the only Panther that is missing from the lineup due to off-field problems. DT Brenston Buckner, WR Steve Smith, and RB Lamar Smith, all startes, are out.
The Bengals qualify for a 28-10 ATS situation involving dogs against teams that have really struggled to win games.
The Panthers have the second-worst offense in the league (scoring just 13.2 points per game) and I expect a resurgent Bengals offense to put up enough to win this game outright.