Cincinnati Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs, 8/10/19 NFL Preseason Predictions

Bengals vs. Chiefs Preseason Prediction

The Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs will open their 2019 NFL preseason schedule tonight at in Kansas City. Will the Bengals and their new coach cover on the road as an underdog?

Game Snapshot

277 Cincinnati Bengals at 278 Kansas City Chiefs

8:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, August 10, 2019

Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

Public Betting Trends

The Chiefs are 3.5-point home favorites versus the Chiefs while the over/under currently sits at 36.5 points. According to our NFL Football Public Betting Chart page, the Chiefs are receiving 63% of the betting tickets from online sportsbooks.

Cincinnati Bengals

Bengals OG Trey Hopkins has been used frequently at left guard in 11-on-11 drills at camp. With OG Clint Boling announcing his retirement, Cincinnati has been grabbing for straws on the left side of the line between free agent acquisition John Jerry, 2016 fifth-rounder Christian Westerman, No. 136 overall pick Michael Jordan, and Hopkins. Baby adds Hopkins has taken his reps there the past few days, so it sounds as if he's in the lead for that starting role. Despite the team's injury woes at both guard and left tackle (with rookie Jonah Williams likely out for the year), Joe Mixon remains a top-10 option in coach Zac Taylor's play-action dependent offense.

Kansas City Chiefs

Speaking Thursday, coach Andy Reid replied, "We'll do that here," when asked if he'll use a RB-by-committee approach this season. "I did a little bit of that back when I was in Philadelphia," Reid said. " Kind of a running back by committee deal and we had some success with it. We’ll do that here. ... They all have their strengths and we’ll try to exploit their strengths there." Reid mentioned both Damien and Darrel Williams, Carlos Hyde, and rookie Darwin Thompson all in the same breath. Damien has missed almost all of camp with a strained hamstring but returned to individual drills this week. Hyde has gotten most of the run with the ones in his absence. Damien was a legit RB1 stud down the stretch and into the playoffs last season, but his injury may have spooked Reid. Damien has never been a true workhorse outside of the second half of last season.

NFL Betting Trends

Cincinnati

The Bengals are 4-0 against the spread in their last four road games.

Kansas City

The Chiefs are 2-5 against the number in their last seven home games.

Prediction

I typically favor teams in preseason that have new head coaches because they often want to validate their hiring to the fans and ownership. More times than not, these new coaches are trying to change the culture of their teams and thus, winning games – any games – is important. Tonight, that theory applies to Zac Taylor, who takes over for Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Plenty of pundits questioned the hire of Taylor, who has limited coaching experience as a whole, including zero experience as a head coach. While Andy Reid and his staff tries to work on smaller details and figure out which players will provide needed depth at the bottom of their roster, I could see Taylor and his Bengals trying to win the game tonight. Thus, I’ll take the points.

NFL Week 1 Preseason Prediction: Cincinnati Bengals +3.5