Sports Betting..... Cincinnati Bengals - NFL Teams Page...

Cincinnati Bengals linebacker David Pollack will miss the rest of the football season as a result of a broken neck. The injury occurred when Pollack smashed into running back Reuben Droughns in the first quarter of the 34-17 victory over the Browns.

Pollack lay on the field of play for a good while before being stretchered off.
The word is that Pollack was conscious and could feel his fingers and toes.

Rashad Jeanty will fill in for Pollack for the Bengals.

Cincinnati are also without linebacker Odell Thurman who is on a four-game suspension for substance abuse.

The Cincinnati Bengals' are out to win their first division title in fifteen years. But they have lost three in a row and six of seven to the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4), including a 27-13 thrashing on Oct. 23. They need to put things straight at Heinz Field to move cloer to the AFC North crown.

Pittsburgh dominated in the October meeting, with 221 rushing yards and held Carson Palmer to his only sub one-hundred passer rating game of 2005. But Cincinnati receiver T.Houshmandzadeh insisted afterward the best team didn't win.

"We left some plays out on the field the last time," Willie Anderson said. "Give Pittsburgh credit. They totally shut down the groove we had on offense. It's on us to reverse that."

Pittsburgh's sputtering rushing game has averaged 78 yards in back-to-back losses. Coach Bill Cowher said, "We haven't played up to our standard all year."

Either way Chad Johnson is planning to entertain the fans with his best touchdown celebration yet.

"That is the Steel City, isn't it?" Johnson said. "The first time we played them, we all know we lost. We had some mistakes that we made early in the game. As far as I'm concerned, we have some things to iron out. The key word is 'iron out'. Everybody remember the key word, iron."

Heading into what amounts to a title showdown, Johnson isn't deviating from his routine of having a little fun with the next opponent. The bigger the game, the bigger the stage.

So the question is 'have the Colts really been tested yet?' - 'not sure' is probably the response. The consensus though, is that the Bengals will test them this weekend.

For the sports betting fraternity, the Bengals are at home and have +5 on the spread. It could be worth taking that as Cincinatti may just pull off what could be a memorable win.

The Colts haven't really faced a tough and injury free defense since its 10-3 win over Jacksonville in Week 2. The following week the Colts managed just 13 points in a win over Cleveland. They did, however, more or less destroy; Tennessee, San Francisco, St. Louis, New England and Houston - but all those teams were banged up already with walking wounded and players missing through injury.

This week the Colts face an altogether different prospect. The Bengals are allowing roughly fifteen points a game and they have the best turnover ratio in the league. They are at home and coming off a rest week. Don't think that Marvin Lewis will be saving his motivational speeches for another day.

The football betting minded could do worse than to take the Bengals plus the points.