Bengals Travel to New England as 7 point Underdogs Against the Patriots

NFL News - August 20th, 2009 - Written by Ryan Smith

This Thursday begins the second week of preseason football, and the first game of the week host the Bengals versus the Patriots. Both of these teams experienced injuries last season, with quarterbacks Tom Brady, and Carson Palmer getting hurt early in week one of the 2008 season. Tom Brady displayed to us in the first preseason game against the Eagles, that he has returned to 100% health, and he is ready to make a Super Bowl Run in 2009. Brady completed 10 out of 15 passes against the Eagles, and managed to get the ball in the end zone twice. The production that Tom Brady displayed in the first preseason game has taken some fear away from Patriots fans, who though Brady might not be ready to stand in the pocket. Carson Palmer played well too, after missing most of last season with an injury in his throwing arm. Palmer completed 7 out of 11 pass attempts for 133 yards, and completed one pass to wide receiver Chad OchoCinco for a 50 yard gain. However Palmer experienced a minor injury in that first preseason game against the New Orleans Saints, and he is listed as questionable for the game tonight.

Creditable online sportsbooks such as Bodog, have released game lines on all 16, week 2, preseason match ups for this weekend. Bodog has the Cincinnati Bengals as a -7 underdog against the Patriots in new England. These two teams last played each other on October 01, 2007 in a week 4 Monday night match up, The Patriots won the game with a final score of 34-13, but lets face it the Patriots won every regular season game in 2007. It will be interesting to see how Patriots head coach, Bill Billecheck, decides to play defense. Normally the Patriots play in a 3-4 alignment, however in the first preseason game against the Eagles, the Patriots often lined up in a 4-3 alignment. With the recent depth of talent on the defensive line, such as the addition of Derrick Burgess, added to the lack of depth at the linebacker spot, the Patriots lined up in a 4-3 more than often. Will Bill Billecheck fallow the same strategy against the Bengals tonight?

The Player to watch on the Bengals football team tonight, is wide receiver Chris Henry. Henry has had his off the field problems in the past, that led to less production on the football field. He has promised the Bengals organization that he is a changed man, and proved it in the first preseason game against the Saints. Henry did not play a single snap with the first team offense in that game, but still managed to catch 7 passes for 100 yards and 1 touchdown. All while playing with back up quarterbacks Jordan Palmer, and J.T. O'Sullivan on every series. It's hard to pick winners in preseason football match ups unless you know a great deal of information on the back up and reserve players. Since Carson Palmer is questionable and the Bengals are on the road, the chances are the Patriots will have strong chance to claim victory tonight. The Over and Under spread in this game is set at 36 1/2, if the starters on both teams would play all 4 quarters the final score would probably exceed 36 1/2 points. However it's so hard to predict out comes during the preseason, so use tonight's game as a fantasy football indication of how soon to draft Tom Brady. This should be an exciting match up for all NFL football fans.

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