Two games in NFL preseason action Thursday night.Cincy is a 6.5 to 7-point dog at New England while Philadelphia is a 3-point road favorite at Indianapolis.The Bengals lost last week at New Orleans, 17-7.More concerning was QB Carson Palmer’s ankle sprain which will keep him out of Thursday’s game.Second-stringer J.T. O’Sullivan should start with Carson’s younger brother, Jordan Palmer, getting at least two quarters of action.
Philly lost at home to New England last week, 27-25.They outgained the Pats, 420 to 257, and had a +1 turnover advantage.However, they couldn’t get it into the end zone settling for 4 field goals on 6 attempts by Fred Akers.While normally I like to bet on a preseason team, in this case the Pats, that was outgained by 150+ yards in their previous game as it is a 62% winning wager over the past ten years, I don’t like laying that many points in preseason action.
Indy lost last week as a home dog, 13-3, to Minnesota in coach Jim Caldwell’s debut as the Colts HC.Peyton Manning played one series and was sacked three times.Manning will see more time this week but rookies Curtis Painter from Purdue and Chris Crane out of Boston College will get a fair amount of playing time.The #2 QB, Jim Sorgi, is still out with an injury.
Both Philly and Indy have multiple injuries, most notably the Eagles with four starting offensive linemen not playing.
A very good measuring stick for capping preseason is to look at how a coach historically has played exhibition games.The Eagles’ Andy Reid is only 14-27 SU, 19-22 ATS.Surprisingly, this is the very first time he has led the Eagles as a road favorite in the preseason.The Colts have a very bad streak going in preseason, 3-16 SU, 5-13-1 ATS, over their last 19.However, that record was compiled under Tony Dungy, not the current Indy coach.
