Bengals vs. Dolphins 10/31/10

The Bengals and Dolphins each look to climb out of third place in their divisons

Miami Dolphins (3-3, 3-0 away) at Cincinatti Bengals (2-4, 1-1 home)

NFL Football: Sunday October 31, 2010 at 1:00 PM ET

The Line: Cincinatti Bengals -1 1/2   Over/Under 43.5

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The Dolphins travel to Cincinatti as both teams try to keep their heads above water in the highly competitive AFC.

The Miami Dolphins have been road warriors, winning all three games away from home thus far, but a controversial ruling at the end of Week 7 now leaves them winless at home and sitting at .500 in arguably the toughest division in football.   Miami is a solid football team and it starts with running the football as the tandem of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are averaging over 4 yards per carry and 107 yards per game as a team.   The linebacker play has been downright nasty at times as Cameron Wake has six sacks on the year and is out to prove that his success in the CFL at bringing the QB to the turf was no fluke.   The addition of Brandon Marshall at WR has revived the passing game and made life easier for Chad Henne who's now completing 63% of his passes on the year.   Davone Bess has also emerged out of the slot as he sits behind Marshall with 32 grabs on the year.   Miami also has a great kicker in Dan Carpenter, but his success has been bittersweet at times as the Dolphins have found themselves settling for field goals instead of touchdowns in some key situations.   The next two weeks on the road against the AFC North will really test the mettle of a Dolphins team that's done all of its damage on the road thus far.

The Cincinatti Bengals came into this season with high expectations having swept the AFC North last season en route to winning the division and being knocked out of the playoffs by the team they let in by sitting their starters in the final week of the season.   Carson Palmer has been sloppy with the football and seems intent on proving that he's been damaged goods ever since his ACL tear at the hands of Kimo Von Olhoeffen of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2006 playoffs.  Terrell Owens is finally starting to come alive but his counterpart Chad Ochocinco has been virtually non-existent as pundits contend that all the TV distractions and social media have affected his play.   Cedric Benson is a far cry from his form last season and it hasn't helped that this team finds themselves playing from behind after some painfully slow first half starts.  On defense the Bengals have some top corners in Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph but the defense has only registered six sacks on the year and it won't get easier as they adjust to the absence of Odom at DE.    While Carson Palmer seems to be the easy scapegoat, Marvin Lewis could have a bigger hand in the team's demise than many realize as the Bengals have become the Bungles once again and may need to retool at the end of the season.

The Dolphins seem to do their best work away from home and the Bengals haven't done their best work at all this season which really makes me wonder if the team that swept the AFC North last season will ever resurface.   The Bengals have only played two home games all year and while they blew the game late against the Bucs, their defense has been pretty strong for the most part in Cincinatti.   While I don't think the Dolphins will sulk too much over their loss against the Steelers, I think they could be a little deflated here after putting so much effort into that contest.   The trends and the public should probably lead me to back the Dolphins here but I'm going to begrudgingly predict that the Bengals utilize their talented group of WR's and contain the threat of Brandon Marshall to gut out an ugly win.   Neither outcome would surprise me but I think these teams are pretty even front to back and with the prospect of not even having to lay the full field goal with the home team now, that's where I'm headed.

Brian Fitz's Pick: Cincinatti Bengals -1 1/2

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