{"id":17219,"date":"2011-08-23T15:03:43","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T20:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17219"},"modified":"2011-08-23T15:03:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T20:03:43","slug":"2011-nfl-preseason-predictions-carolina-panthers-at-cincinnati-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-nfl-preseason-predictions-carolina-panthers-at-cincinnati-bengals-17219\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 NFL Preseason Predictions: Carolina Panthers at Cincinnati Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolina Panthers at Cincinnati Bengals
\nThursday, 8\/25\/11, 7:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 (-120)
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 (+110)
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 34
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 34
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carolina Panthers WR Steve Smith is expected to return to action versus the Cincinnati Bengals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carolina ended up on the losing end of a 20-10 road contest against the Miami Dolphins last week as six-point underdogs and now will focus on rookie quarterback Cam Newton\u2019s first go-around as starter.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re going to start Cam this Thursday against Cincinnati,\u201d Panthers head coach Ron Rivera stated.\u00a0 \u201cWhat it will do is give us an opportunity to see how he\u2019ll handle the whole game experience.\u201d\u00a0 The Heisman Trophy-winner went 7 for 14 for 66 yards in last week\u2019s contest after completing 8 of 19 throws for 134 yards in the 20-10 preseason-opening win over the New York Giants.\u00a0 Carolina is 11-18 ATS as an underdog during exhibition action.<\/p>\n

The Panthers are also expecting wide receiver Steve Smith back in the huddle for his first preseason game, as he stayed around the practice field for some extra work with Newton after Monday\u2019s practice.\u00a0 \u201cIt will be fun,\u201d Smith commented.\u00a0 \u201cToday was probably our best practice.\u00a0 We were going on all cylinders.\u201d\u00a0 He has missed the early parts of camp with a cut he endured in between two fingers on Aug. 9.\u00a0 Much of the focus around camp has been placed on being consistent in the team\u2019s third preseason game, as Rivera will be evaluating players for just the third time as an NFL head coach.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati is less than three weeks away from opening its 2011 regular season and fans are concerned.\u00a0 The Bengals are coming off a 27-7 road loss against the New York Jets and head coach Marvin Lewis sees a lot of work to be done.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a grind, and we are going to find the way,\u201d Lewis stated after the Week 2 loss.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the core 53 guys who will be on the field Sept. 11 and I saw some positives from that group.\u201d\u00a0 This week\u2019s game will be the first preseason meeting between the Bengals and Panthers, as the regular-season series is tied 2-2.<\/p>\n

The Bengals were once again led by rookie quarterback Andy Dalton, who finished the game 8 of 19 for 86 yards and two interceptions.\u00a0 Fellow rookie wide receiver A.J. Green caught just a single pass for eight yards and was unable to save Dalton from throwing his first interception as a ball deflected off his hands.\u00a0 A stat that bettors will need to keep an eye on this year is Lewis\u2019 40-9-1 record when Cincinnati has a plus-differential in turnovers.\u00a0 The squad has lost the category in both games during the preseason by a matching 3-0 margin.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be hard-pressed to back either team in this contest, but the Bengals 13-23 ATS mark as preseason favorites makes a case for the underdog Panthers.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a huge season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you.\u00a0 Get a long-term package today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolina Panthers at Cincinnati Bengals Thursday, 8\/25\/11, 7:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 (-120) Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 (+110) Opening Total:\u00a0 34 Current Total:\u00a0 34 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Carolina ended up on the losing end of a 20-10 road contest against the Miami Dolphins last week as six-point underdogs and now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[5197,3386,3365,319,2034],"class_list":["post-17219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-a-j-green","tag-andy-dalton","tag-cam-newton","tag-marvin-lewis","tag-steve-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17220,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17219\/revisions\/17220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}