Cincinnati Begals Looking for Huge Upset in AFC Championship Game
By Charles Jay
BetAnySports customers have to be on the lookout for a lot of things in the AFC Championship game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs, it’s not always the things that are most readily evident. Of course, if you’re handicapping the game you have to often look below the surface, at some things that the public may not have taken notice of.
So let’s see what we can come up with as kickoff approaches at 3:05 p.m. Eastern time at Arrowhead Stadium.
First let’s take a look at the numbers…..
The Chiefs are favored by a touchdown against the AFC North champions, who actually beat them 34-31 back on January 2nd:
Kansas City Chiefs -7 (-115)
Cincinnati Bengals + 7 (-105)
Over 54.5 points -110
Under 54.5 points – 110
AFC Championship Game — Tyler Boyd and CJ Uzomah
If you followed these teams the first time they played, you remember that the Kansas City defense had no answers whatsoever for Ja’Marr Chase, the explosive wide receiver for the Chiefs who had 266 yards in receptions. So it would stand to reason that they might overcompensate a little in an effort to keep Chase under relative control.
And that may open up possibilities for other people. The Bengals, as it turns out, have enough weapons so that quarterback Joe Burrow doesn’t have to concentrate on one receiver.
The beneficiaries of this might be Tyler Boyd and CJ Uzomah/ Boyd, a wide receiver, has a catch rate of 71.3% this season, which is actually higher than Burrow’s completion percentage. In other words, he’s definitely on the same page as his quarterback. And he has caught touchdown passes in four of his last five games. He is definitely an option when Cincinnati gets into the red zone.
Uzomah is a tight end who had a big day against the Raiders in the wildcard round with 64 yards in receptions and a touchdown. Some teams are better than others when it comes to defending the tight end position. In Kansas City’s case, they are only so-so. Quarterbacks have completed 73% of their passes to the tight end spot against them, with 7.8 yards per attempt.
Remember that Burrow, who is under siege from opposing pass-rushers because of the mediocrity of his offensive line, may need guys he can find in a hurry.
AFC Title Game — Burrow’s accuracy
We are not sure enough people talk about how good Burrow’s numbers are this season. Not only does he lead the league an accuracy rate, at 70.4%, he has also averaged 8.9 yards per attempt, which is tops in the NFL. And it’s kind of tough to be best in both of those categories at once.
There are metrics for “bad throw percentage” and “on target percentage,” and Burrow leads the league in both of those as well. So even though he is often hurried in the pocket, he not only finds the opportunity to get the ball away but also find his mark better than anyone else. Over his last six games, he’s thrown 13 touchdown passes with just one interception.
AFC Championship Game — Don’t discount the Cincinnati defense.
The Bengals came up pretty favorably in the metrics when measuring the most effective defenses. Only four teams in the NFL allowed fewer yards per drive than they did, and they were seventh in points allowed per drive. In the first meeting between these teams, they showed themselves to be vulnerable against the run, giving up 155 yards on the ground on 6.7 per carry, but they did hold Patrick Mahomes to 259 yards through the air, with Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce combing for just 65 yards.
There are a lot of wagering options available at BetAnySports, including Prop Builder, where you can take advantage of a lot of angles on Sunday’s championship games….. Keep in mind that reduced juice is available for all the action, and if you want to keep wagering even after the kickoff, that’s available, through Premier Lines, Ultimate Lines or Super Lines…… Make your deposit using a credit card or the digital currency of Bitcoin, where you won’t get charged a transaction fee!
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