The Slow Starting Bengals 

The Cincinnati Bengals will take on the LA Rams in a highly anticipated Super Bowl LVI matchup between two powerhouses. The Bengals, led by Joe Burrow, have been underdogs the entire season and are looking to prove all their haters from the season wrong. Their offensive side of the ball is absolutely loaded. They have a top 5 QB in the league in Joe Burrow, a pro bowl RB in Joe Mixon, and two 1,000 yard receivers on the year with Tee Higgins and Jamaar Chase. The later who won offensive rookie of the year, and broke the record for most receiving yards by a rookie in a single season. CJ Uzomah, their TE, has also had a breakout season and is expected to play despite an injury knocking him out early if the game against the Chiefs. 

The Rams on the other hand have been opposite of underdogs. After trading a ton of picks in the off-season for Matthew Stafford, and going and acquiring Von Miller and Odell Beckham Jr., for them anything other than a Super Bowl appearance would have been deemed a failure. Going into the season this team has the fourth best odds to win the Super Bowl at +1200. Sean McVay has continued to excell and prove that he is the brightest young coaching mind in the NFL. 

The Stats 

The Bengals ended the regular season with the 13th best ranked offense in the league, Well the Rams finished in 9th. Defensively teams finish relatively the same with the Rams allowing the 15th most yards a game and the bangles allowing the 16th most. (The Rams allowed 344 yards a game, and the Bengals allowed 355 yards). Since the playoffs began, only one team has improved on the category. The Rams are allowing 70 yards less a game than their regular season average, while the Bengals are allowing 20 more a game than in the first 17 games. 

Since we want to focus on the first quarter, the Bengals are 0.5 underdogs. Through each of their first three games, they have scored 23 first quarter points for an average of 7.6 points each first quarter. The Rams throughout the season have been a team that gets out quick and then gets caught up on later. This game will be won in the trenches where the rams have a distinct advantage vs a poor Bengals o-line. As only 0.5 point favorites I think the rams are the easy pick. Expect the Rams to score quickly and maybe even jump out to a 2 score lead before the Bengals close in. 

For our expert Bengals vs Rams pick hammer the Rams -0.5. We also love the over of 9.5, the rams will score 10 points themselves on the first quarter.