{"id":20169,"date":"2011-12-10T23:44:54","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T04:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20169"},"modified":"2011-12-10T23:44:54","modified_gmt":"2011-12-11T04:44:54","slug":"nfl-picks-week-14-houston-texans-vs-cincinnati-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-picks-week-14-houston-texans-vs-cincinnati-bengals-20169\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Picks Week 14: Houston Texans vs. Cincinnati Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at Cincinnati Bengals
\nSunday, 12\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 37.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 38
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bengals<\/a>
The Cincinnati Bengals are still alive in the AFC playoff race despite losing three of four games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston will put its six-game win streak on the line Sunday and potentially clinch the AFC South division in the process.\u00a0 The Texans need to register a victory and hope for the Tennessee Titans to fall to the New Orleans Saints in order to accomplish that feat.\u00a0 Injuries is the main concern surrounding the franchise, as many key players have been lost for the season, while rookie quarterback T.J. Yates is set to make his second career NFL start.\u00a0 He threw for 188 yards in his debut last week in a 17-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons as three-point home underdogs.\u00a0 Houston is 4-2 ATS on the road this season.<\/p>\n

The Texans certainly have a defense that can pull off the slight upset according to the betting odds, ranking second in surrendering just 274.1 yards per game.\u00a0 Creating a few turnovers could definitely create some momentum for the visitors, ranking third with a +12 turnover ratio through 13 games of the season.\u00a0 Offensively, the talented backfield of Arian Foster and Ben Tate leads a rushing attack that is averaging 152.6 yards per game on the ground.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati is still in the NFL playoff picture despite losing three of four games, including a 35-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers as seven-point underdogs last week.\u00a0 \u201cOne bad game does not define us,\u201d stated Bengals rookie wide receiver A.J. Green.\u00a0 He happened to score the team\u2019s only touchdown against Pittsburgh\u2019s vaunted defense.\u00a0 The Bengals possess a solid defense of their own, allowing just 96.3 rushing yards per game, which sits sixth among all teams.\u00a0 Cincinnati is 0-2 ATS as a home favorite of a field goal or less since the start of the 2009 campaign.<\/p>\n

The Bengals need rookie quarterback Andy Dalton to bounce back from a poor performance, hitting on just 11 of 24 passes for 135 yards in last week\u2019s defeat.\u00a0 He has developed some chemistry with Green over the season, as the two have connected for six scores thus far.\u00a0 Cincinnati running back Cedric Benson is listed as probable after returning to practice Friday and must play an important part in the offensive game plan.\u00a0 The team ranks 20th in the league in gaining 108.1 rushing yards per game, going against a defense that sits fourth in giving up just 90.7 yards a contest.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Bengals due to their 3-2 ATS mark as a favorite this year, while the Texans are 1-4 ATS as a road underdog.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, 12\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Cincinnati -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 37.5 Current Total:\u00a0 38 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Houston will put its six-game win streak on the line Sunday and potentially clinch the AFC South division in the process.\u00a0 The Texans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3386,5456,190,302,1120,31,3583],"class_list":["post-20169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-andy-dalton","tag-arian-foster","tag-cedric-benson","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-houston-texans","tag-nfl","tag-t-j-yates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20169","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=20169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20172,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20169\/revisions\/20172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}