The Arizona Cardinals will be looking to pad their three-game lead atop the NFC West standings and extend their current straight-up winning streak to four games when they host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football as 5-point betting favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The 7-2 Cardinals extended their divisional lead with a 39-32 win in Seattle last Sunday night, taking home the outright win in their first outing as underdogs this season and improving their against-the-spread record to 6-3.
While Seattle’s 32 points by far marks the most that the Cardinals have surrendered this season their offense continues to fire on all cylinders, averaging 33 points per game during their current win streak and 33.6 PPG on the season. That has them second only to New England going into Sunday night’s Bengals vs. Cardinals betting matchup at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Veteran pivot Carson Palmer continues to be the difference maker, tossing three touchdown passes against the Seahawks to raise his season total to 23, just one behind the Patriots’ Tom Brady, while also recording the league’s second-ranked passer rating of 108.0
The win over Seattle also marked the first time in three games that the Cardinals surrendered over 300 total yards during their current run, holding opposing ground games to under 100 rushing yards in three of their last five.
Despite their recent winning ways, Arizona has failed to pay off at the sportsbooks in recent home games, going 0-2 ATS in their last two and 2-3 ATS in their last five in the desert.
The Bengals travel west after suffering their first loss of the season, a 10-6 defeat at home to the Houston Texans on Monday night.
That matchup was the third straight in which Cincy gave up just 10 points, but the AFC North leaders were unable to generate any offense after routing Cleveland 31-10 two weeks ago, going a dismal 3-for-12 on third downs and failing to penetrate the Texans red zone again after taking an early 6-0 lead.
The loss was also the Bengals’ first ATS this season and ended their five-game SU win streak at home, but the club remains perfect on the road this season and is an outstanding 8-1 SU and 7-2 ATS in their last nine regular season road contests according to the OddsShark NFL Database.
However, Cincinnati has produced mixed results in meetings with the Cardinals since the club moved to Arizona, going 4-3 SU and 3-4 ATS in their last seven matchups.