This weekend will see us moving into the 11th game week of the 18-week season. We are, officially in the home stretch, over half way done but we still have so much more action to soak in. So far this season has been full of surprises since the Bills were favorites to win it all from before the season even started, especially after beating the Rams 31-10 in the opening game of the season. Then there was the Eagles only losing their first game last week!
Today, I’d like to look at a few NFL teams and see how they’ve been performing so far. Specifically, I want to take a look at the Cincinnati Bengals the Cleveland Browns and I know this one seems a little bit out there, but the Philadelphia Eagles, purely because they only lost their first game last week as they hosted the Washington Commanders at the Lincoln Financial Field.
The Bengals coasted past the Panthers in their last game in game week 9 with a 42-21 win. Source: SI
Starting off with the Cincinnati Bengals, they currently sit 2nd in the AFC North with 5 wins and 4 losses, not great, not terrible. But the record doesn’t tell the exact story. The Bengals started off the season with back to back close losses to the Steelers who are seriously struggling right now and the Cowboys. It has been a mixed bag since, for them to lose to all of their divisional rivals, Ravens, Browns AND Steelers is pretty poor. They will want to be doing better. A win against the Steelers on Sunday after their big win over the Panthers on 6th November would be a fantastic way for them to march on and put the pressure on the Ravens.
Next up we have the Cleveland Browns, they sit just behind the Bengals in 3rd place in the AFC North with a record of 3-6, pretty poor season for Browns fans so far, but lets check the tale of the season, any shock results to look at? Honestly, nothing in particular, they had one close game with the Ravens where they only lost by 3 points, they got a solid win over the Bengals beating them 32-13, but outside of that, nothing really jumps out. They do have a rough run however with the Bills and the Buccaneers coming up next. So, where will they find themselves after those 2 games? I can’t see it being great.
Since we have 3 teams we have been looking at, we have 3 teams with upcoming fixtures, now is the time when we take a look at what the experts are thinking about how they’re going to perform, since we started talking about the Cincinnati Bengals first, we’ll check their upcoming fixture first here too! So, Sunday 20th November, the Bengals travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers, both teams not doing great, but in this one, the Bengals are -200 favourites, returning $7.50 from a $5 stake, the Steelers on the other hand are +170 underdogs returning $13.50 from that $5 stake.
While scouring for odds, we discovered BetMGM has odds for the players in Ohio to be up to date for rest of the season, so what odds are they offering for the Browns next game? Unfortunately for the Browns, they are also on the road as they travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills, I think it’s to be expected here that the Bills are favorites coming in at -380, a $6.31 return from a $5 stake, with the Browns sat on +300, that returns $20 from the same $5 stake as before.
Finally, it’s time to look at the Philadelphia Eagles who suffered their first loss this week, their next game sees them ALSO on the road as they travel to Indianapolis to take on the, somewhat struggling Colts. The Colts are 4-5-1 this season, meanwhile the Eagles are 8-1 and that is reflected in the odds, I feel like the Eagles would be bigger favorites if they hadn’t dropped a game last week, however you can get the eagles at -310 returning $6.61 from $5, with the Colts currently being +250, set to return $17.50 from $5. It’ll be interesting to see if the Colts can pounce on the wounded Eagles as they try to recover from that loss.
The Eagles suffered their first loss of the season to the Commanders in game week 10. Source: THR
Last but certainly not least, we have the Philadelphia Eagles, they currently find themselves flying high in the NFC East on 8 wins and 1 loss. Considering they got 9 wins in the entirety of last season, that’s kinda wild honestly. Speaking of which, the 8 game win streak they went on included the following teams. Lions, Vikings, Commanders, Jaguars, Cardinals, Cowboys, Steelers and Texans before their second game against the Commanders ended it. Given their next 2 games are the Colts and the Packers I can see them getting back to winning ways. The real question is whether they can take this season’s form into the postseason. Last season they got smashed by the Bucs 31-15 in the first round.
And that’s going to be it for this one, SO! Bengals fans, Browns fans and finally Eagles fans, how have you enjoyed this season? This next one is specifically for the Bengals and Browns fans, what more do you need to see from the boys to take them up to a next level and is a playoff position still going to be within reach? Now for the Eagles fans, prior to this season starting did you EVER see a world where you’d have only lost 1 game by the middle of November? By no means am I saying they’re a bad team but 8 wins out of a potential 9 is nuts!
So, we have 7 game weeks remaining as well as the postseason to look forward to, the experts are calling the expected winners with the top 3 being Bills +375, Chiefs +500, Eagles +600, what do you guys think of that? The Bills have been the favorites since before the season even started but they’re currently sitting 6-3, are they saving their legs for the playoffs or is there more to it than that? Only 3 months to find out who will lift the Vince Lombardi trophy in Arizona in February!