The Bookie Brief: Bengals Scoring In Monday Night Football

• The Cincinnati Bengals are two-touchdown underdogs on Monday Night Football versus the Pittsburgh Steelers
• The Steelers have odds favoring them to win in the first quarter, first half, over the full game.

CINCINNATI – With the Monday Night Football game in Week 15 a two-touchdown spread, the focus generally steers away from the game line and onto other aspects.

Still, the Bengals are 4-1 against the spread in their last five home games but have only covered once in their last five games. This gives Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers the advantage and their odds are quite expensive on the MNF game line.

MNF Betting Odds

• Steelers -1200
• Bengals +700

Pittsburgh is expected to get going right out of the gate, as their 7.5-point first half spread is seeing shading en route to becoming -8. Expected to be ahead by 3 points after the first (with heaving shading on the over), early longshot odds at NFL sportsbooks present themselves for the Bengals.

In the first quarter, the Bengals often do rather decent compared to their totals. Allowing just 4.85 points per 1st Quarter, the Bengals are in the top half of the league.

The Steelers lead this category, allowing only 2.85 points per 1st Quarter.

Likewise, the Steelers and Bengals also are in the bottom half of first-quarter scoring themselves, showing trends supporting a game that is slow to get going. As the Bengals have +240 odds to lead after the first quarter, this could be a small-risk investment that gets negated by a 0-0 tied ballgame after 15 minutes.

To win Monday Night Football, the Bengals will have to get in the endzone, as the Steelers have assembled one of the best defenses in the NFL. Touchdowns don’t come often against the Steel Curtain, who is top-5 in the fewest passing touchdowns against them (19) and atop the league with the fewest rushing touchdowns against them (7).

With this, the betting odds at legal sportsbooks on the first touchdown scorer for the Bengals get rather inflated.

MNF 1st TD Scorer Odds – Bengals

• Giovani Bernard +450
• Tee Higgins +500
• Tyler Boyd +600
• A.J. Green (CIN) +1000
• Drew Sample +1200
• Samaje Perine +1200
• Ryan Finley +2000
• Trayveon Williams +2000
• Alex Erickson +2500
• Cethan Carter +5000
• Michael Thomas +5000
• Mason Schreck +5000
• Stanley Morgan Jr. +10000

Combine the tough defense of the Steelers with the lackluster scoring from the Bengals and bettors are given a few longshots. The smart play is picking one or two to hope for a decent profit, but the odds are so long that betting the top four can result in a payout regardless.

Player	Risk	Odds	Payout	Profit
Giovani Bernard	$30	+450	$135	$75
Tee Higgins	$25	+500	$125	$60
Tyler Boyd	$20	+600	$120	$50
A.J. Green	$50	+1000	$150	$75

Fluctuating the risk can alter the profits assigned with each player but aside from a Ryan Finley touchdown or Semaje Perine finding the endzone first, the security is rather high. Still, there is no such thing as lock so the NFL betting fans will have to see for themselves, when Monday Night Football kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.

News tags: A.J. Green | Cincinnati Bengals | Giovani Bernard | Monday Night Football | NFL | Pittsburgh Steelers | Tee Higgins | Tyler Boyd