AFC Wild Card Betting – Bengals Hope to Shed Playoff Slump in Indy

Cincinnati Bengals at Indianapolis Colts (-3.5, 49.5 o/u)

The Cincinnati Bengals (10-5-1, 5-3 away) head into the playoffs with a huge monkey on their backs. For three straight seasons, the Bengals have lost in the Wild Card round.

This Sunday (1:00 p.m. Eastern), the Andy Dalton-led team travels a short distance to face the Indianapolis Colts (11-5, 6-2 home), a team that decimated the Bengals 27-0 earlier this year, holding Cincinnati to 135 yards of total offense.

“Man, there were a lot of problems,” Bengals safety Reggie Nelson said. “We got beat and they got the best of us, so it’s always good going back to a stadium, back to the scene of the crime.”

He added, “Suppressing [Colts quarterback] Andrew Luck is going to be kind of hard. He always starts off kind of slow and the scary thing is, he can always get his team going.”

While the Bengals struggled in the first matchup, it was pretty much an average Sunday for Luck, who three for oper 340 yards with two TDs.

Though Luck has every reason to be confident heading into Sunday, he is not overlooking the up-and-down Bengals defense. “We have a lot of respect for what they do,” Luck said. “They do a lot and they do it well. These guys do everything and do it with confidence and competence. It’s a fun team to play.”

Compared to the previous game, a lot has changed for both teams. While the Colts usually potent offense struggled a bit down the stretch, the Bengals ended the season strong behind the work of rookie running back Jeremy Hill, who posted more than 1,120 yards rushing despite starting the year as the backup.

Arguably his best performance came under tremendous pressure; in week 16, Hill rushed for 147 yards (including an 85 yard TD scamper) against the stingy Broncos run-defense and the Bengals punched their playoff ticket with a 38-27 win despite being three-point dogs.

As for the three consecutive playoff losses, though, the Bengals are feeling the heat.

“Winning in general is how quarterbacks are judged,” Dalton said. “If you win a lot in the regular season but you haven’t won a lot in the postseason, then they’re going to say that you couldn’t do something.”

The Bengals may be in trouble if stud receiver A.J. Green doesn’t play. Green suffered a concussion during last weekend’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers and didn’t practice on Thursday. He was also sidelined during Cincinnati’s earlier loss to the Colts, and his absence was palpable.

Conversely, Luck may have veteran receiver Reggie Wayne back, joining the likes of T.Y. Hilton and Coby Fleener.

The under (49.5) is a consideration, but the Bengals running game means the play is Cincinnati and the points (+3.5).

(Photo credit: Navin75 (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)