Bengals the Slight Favorites to Win Sunday Against Tennessee Titans

Despite a bad loss last week to open the 2008 regular NFL season, the Cincinnati Bengals have been made a small -1 favorite at most online gambling sites verses the Tennessee Titans. The Titans upset heavily favored Jacksonville last week.

This line opened Cincinnati -2 ½ at Bookmaker.com (one of the sharpest offshore sports books) and was brought down to a pick within hours, suggesting that all the early sharp action was on Tennessee. The line there has since moved up to -1. Most books opened this one anywhere between -1 and -1 ½. The action has been relatively even around that number, though this line is still rather unstable between a pick and -1 ½.

Gambling911.com has the line a pick as well with a slight edge towards Tennessee. We can see the Titans -1. And because of this scenario, we don't see a whole lot of books moving the line in that direction.

The Bengals will have to try to pounce back against Tennessee's stingy defense.

You would never have thought the Titans won against a solid team like Jacksonville last week after all the distractions that took place during and after that game.

Vince Young struggled in his season opener, completing 12 of 22 passes for 110 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Fans booed heavily as he was slow to head back onto the field late in the fourth quarter. Four plays later, Young hurt his knee and left the game.

That was a blow to the Titans, but the aftermath was far more disturbing. Coach Jeff Fisher called police Monday night to help locate Young, whose mental state was in question. That led to four hours of uncertainty before Young contacted the Titans and met with Fisher, a psychologist and police crisis negotiators at the team's headquarters before driving himself home.

Fisher wasn't specific about why he called the police.

"I was given some information from people that were close to him late afternoon, early evening that was quite honestly very concerning to me. I'm not going to go into specifics, but it was concerning to me," he said.

While the details of Young's situation are still murky, Fisher ruled out his return for Sunday's game on his TV show Tuesday. The coach would not give a timetable past that, calling the test results good news and saying that Young needs to rest his leg.

In Young's place, Collins will start for the fifth time since the beginning of the 2006 season. He went 0-3 in 2006 and 1-0 last year. The Titans signed Chris Simms on Wednesday to back up Collins.

Because of the uncertain quarterback situation and the fairly accurate line that is available, which doesn't allow for much deviation, Gambling911.com would recommend passing on this game.