Monday Night Football: Bengals at Packers
Posted on August 6, 2008 | 12:26 PM ET Filed under:The Green Bay Packers begin the post-Brett Favre era when they host the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2008 exhibition season opener for both teams Monday night at Lambeau Field.
ESPN will provide the live television coverage of this game, beginning at 8 pm Eastern.
OddsMaker.com is listing Green Bay as three-point home favorites for this game, with a total of 36.
Green Bay made a surprising run to the NFC championship game last year, but fell at home to the eventual champion New York Giants in overtime. Then they went through a tumultuous offseason, with Favre retiring, then trying to unretire, and causing severe headaches throughout Cheeseland in the process.
The Favre situation will apparently be settled by the time this game kicks off, and it’s likely Favre will be a member of another NFL team by that time. Thus the team now belongs to QB Aaron Rodgers, but he’ll have to deal with a Packer Nation and Lambeau crowd that still holds #4 near and dear in their hearts.
On the other side of this matchup, Cincinnati continued to fail to live up to the promise it showed a couple of seasons ago, going 7-9 last year.
The Bengals ranked 10th in the league in total offense last year at 348 YGP, but only 24th in rushing at 97 YPG, as RB Rudi Johnson, who’s rushed for better than 1,300 yards three times in his career, struggled with a hamstring injury.
Cincinnati also ranked just 27th in total defense at 349 YPG, 21st vs. the run at 118 YPG, and 17th in total yardage at -1 per game, as they went 7-9 against the spread last year.
Green Bay ranked second in the NFL in total offense last year at 371 YPG, and just 21st in rushing at 100 YPG. But the Packer ground game picked up after Ryan Grant was installed as the main ground gainer. Grant just signed a new four-year deal with GB, but at best will see limited action Monday night.
The Packers also ranked 11th in total defense last year at 313 YPG, 14th vs. the rush at 103 YPG, and fifth in total yardage at +57 per game, all of which helped Green Bay go a very profitable 12-3-1 against the spread.
These two teams last met during the preseason of 2006, when the Bengals won a 48-17 game in Cincy.
For Cincinnati, Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Harvard grad who saw some action as a rookie for the Rams in 2005, follows Carson Palmer on the quarterback depth chart. And Palmer’s brother Jordan, a second-year NFLer who did some nice things in college at UTEP, is listed third on the QB chart.
As you might have heard, Rodgers, the former Cal Bear who’s manned a clipboard for most of his first three seasons in the NFL, now heads the Green Bay QB depth chart followed by rookies Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn.
In five exhibition seasons under coach Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati is 10-10 straight up and 11-8-1 ATS, with the totals going 10-10.
In two exhibition seasons under coach Mike McCarthy, Green Bay is 3-5 SU and 3-4 ATS, with the totals going 5-2.
OddsMaker.com is also listing Cincinnati at +450 to win the AFC North this season, +2,200 to win the AFC, and +5,000 to win the Super Bowl in Tampa in February.
Green Bay is listed at +200 to win the NFC North this season, +1,000 to win the NFC, and +2,500 to win the Super Bowl.
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