Bengals vs. Steelers Betting Preview Saturday January 4, 2025

This is a must win game for the Bengals as they travel to Pittsburgh and face a Steelers team already in the playoffs.

Cincinnati can only get in with a win over the Steelers Saturday night then they need to wait for both Miami and Denver to lose.

The Broncos will host a resting Kansas City team that has nothing more to play for Sunday evening, hence the +10.5 Chiefs line.

The Steelers appeared to be firmly in control of the North after consecutive wins over Cincinnati and Cleveland in early December, only to follow it up with three nationally televised pratfalls.

The Steelers remain big underdogs in the AFC North race, checking in at +1800.  Pittsburgh will know ahead of this game whether they can still win the AFC North as the Ravens were playing Cleveland just prior.  Should Baltimore lose, the Steelers still have a shot.

When the action concludes, they can finish as the No. 3, No. 5, or No. 6 seed. As a result, they can either begin the playoffs at home or on the road and have three potential opponents for the wild card round.

The Steelers play the Chargers with an AFC North victory.  They'll face Houston with a win or Baltimore with a loss.  The latter is least appealing, thus providing a motivational factor here.

Line Analysis

The Bengals line moved from -3 to -1.5 and back up to -2.5 with an overlay detected as Sagarin has Cincinnati -0.5. 

Before You Bet

• Lack of motivation is a possible factor here for the Steelers.
• The Bengals offensive line could face trouble against Pittsburgh's outstanding pass rush.
• Mike Tomlin when an underdog is 50-23-1 Against The Spread (68%).
• The Steelers have won four of the last five games in this series.
• Pittsburgh has had issues both defensively and offensively in recent week.

Our Pick

Bengals -2.5