The Cincinnati Bengals (10-6) defeated the Baltimore Ravens (10-6) last Sunday by a score of 23-17. The Houston Texans (12-4) lost last week to the Indianapolis Colts (11-5) 16-28.

The Bengals finished off the regular season with seven wins out of their last eight games. This one wasn’t the same as the others as the starters didn’t play very long. Carlos Dunlap took an interception to the house to put the final touches on the Cincinnati win. The Baltimore Ravens pulled their starters early as well since the outcome would not change their playoff situation either.

The Houston Texans lost their third game in four weeks and fell to the number three seed in the AFC. Other than two Matt Schaub interceptions, the Texans offense played decent. Andre Johnson caught 12 balls for 141 yards as Matt Schaub finished 24 of 36 for 275 yards. The Colts were riding emotion with the return of their coach, Chuck Pagano, and they performed well on both sides of the ball. Texan J.J. Watt finished short of obtaining the record for sacks in a season.

Trends:

The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Cincinnati's last 8 games

Cincinnati is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Houston

Houston is 2-5 ATS in its last 7 games

The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Houston's last 5 games

Houston has really fallen over the last month. Even knowing over the last two weeks that they needed a win to get a bye, they still couldn’t come through. Meanwhile, the Bengals have been mowing through all of their rivals and building up confidence. Both teams have great receivers and very good running backs so they are viewed as offensive teams.  In reality, their combined defense probably perform slightly better overall than the offense and the trends reflect that. There is also the issue of Bengals running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis who had a tight hamstring last Sunday and was held out. Either team could take this one home, but I see our best play as the UNDER.