Somehow, someway, the Cincinnati Bengals have a chance to sneak into the playoffs if they can come away with a win vs. Pittsburgh and hope some results go their way on the out of town scoreboard.
My Bengals vs. Steelers predictions believe the Bengals can handle their own business, but may not yet sneak into the dance.
Find out more in my NFL picks for Saturday, January 4.
Bengals vs Steelers predictions
Early spread lean
Bengals -3 (-105 at BetMGM)
My analysis
The final game on Saturday has big playoff ramifications. The hosts have already sealed their spot in the playoffs, but the visiting Cincinnati Bengals are getting closer to an improbable playoff appearance having had a 4-8 record just one month ago.
A win doesn’t get the Bengals into the playoffs but it gives them a chance. They’d need to wait until Sunday to find out and hope that the Dolphins lose on the road to the Jets and the Broncos fall to the Chiefs.
The Bengals started the season so badly but they have a great chance of not only winning on Saturday but covering the spread too. The Pittsburgh Steelers have limped into the playoffs having initially looked like they were favorites to win the division. They’ve faced tough opposition in the past three weeks but they’ve come up short on every opportunity, losing by two scores to the Eagles, Ravens, and most recently, the Chiefs. They would relish a chance to eliminate their divisional rivals from playoff contention but the reality is that they need to just get through this game with no injuries and prepare for the postseason.
This Bengals resurgence has been led by the offense, with the defense ranked fourth from bottom in DVOA. For context, no other team with a defense in the bottom 10 in terms of DVOA is even in contention at this stage. That speaks to the quality of what their offense is doing and in particular Joe Burrow. It looks like a pick’em between Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson to be MVP but in terms of raw numbers, the Bengals’ QB should be in the conversation. He’s having a truly elite season in nearly every metric, and is on a tear, throwing three or more touchdown passes in eight straight games.
A matchup against the Steelers is the last piece of the playoff jigsaw that they can impact and you better believe that the Bengals will come into this game hungrier and more motivated than the Steelers.
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Early Over/Under lean
Under 48.5 (-110 at BetMGM)
My analysis
These two teams met at the start of December in a spectacular game, which ended up won by the Steelers in a shootout with a total of 82 points.
However, over the past few weeks the Steelers’ offense has slowed down and with the Bengals’ defense beginning to find some consistency, they should be able to keep the score lower. We know about the firepower that Joe Burrow has on offer, with either Chase Brown, Ja’Marr Chase, or Tee Higgins going off each game, but the Steelers’ defense is amongst the very best in the NFL and should be able to slow down the Bengals’ offense in a tight game that should have all the players involved nervous.
As high-powered as the Bengals offense is, we’ve seen the Over/Under going 2-2 in their four-game winning streak, while the Under has cashed in three of the last four games for the Steelers. Everything is on the line this Saturday and that’s likely going to add to the tension in the air. This should be a very different game from the one that we saw in Cincinnati at the start of December.
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Bengals vs Steelers live odds
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