Here are the four best bets in the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Los Angeles Rams matchup in Super Bowl LVI this upcoming Sunday.
The last NFL game for the next five months means time to lock in some of our last previous NFL game bets of the year. The Super Bowl is one of the most bet on games in all sports and one of the hardest to exploit to make money. However, I ended up with these four bets through some pretty significant research about the teams and the history and trends of bets in the Super Bowl.
Obviously, if you plan on betting, follow up with your own research and decisions, but this is what I will be going with for Super Bowl LVI between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams.
*All odds are from FanDuel Sportsbook and subject to change after publishing of this article*
Best Super Bowl bet No. 1: Kendall Blanton OVER 28.5 Yards (-110)
With Tyler Higbee officially out of the Super Bowl, Blanton will be starting at tight end for the Los Angeles Rams. That means that Kendall Blanton will start in his place and receive most of the reps at the tight end position.
Last week, Blanton had seven receptions for 57 yards in only three quarters of work. Blanton is still new to the NFL, with over 66% career yards coming in the last two games. So what makes this a quality bet? It is the fact that 71% of his receptions in the playoffs have resulted in first downs.
Although Higbee was not targeted by Stafford throughout the season, Blanton looks like a guy that Stafford seemed to turn to on third down last week. I would not expect Blanton to repeat his performance last week, but I think 28.5 yards is a bit low of a number for him.
The Bengals will likely focus a lot of their secondary’s attention on Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr., probably freeing some things up for Blanton on crucial downs.
Also, you should love this bet if you think the Rams will win. The last time a team won in the Super Bowl with their starting tight end having less than 50 receiving yards was in 2016 when the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers.
Best Super Bowl bet No. 2: Tee Higgins OVER 5.5 Receptions (+106)
Tee Higgins is one of the most underrated reasons his Bengals team has made a run in these playoffs.
We all know that Ja’Marr Chase is the guy for the Bengals, but Tee Higgins has been fantastic all season. With ideal conditions in Los Angeles, I expect the Bengals to throw it short quite a bit in this game.
Higgins is an outstanding short route runner, and it showed last game when he snagged a couple of slants for first downs. Here are a couple of reasons I am convinced this bet will hit.
- Tee Higgins has 13 receptions and 19 targets over his last two playoffs games.
- Tee Higgins is averaging 7.6 targets per game in the playoffs.
- Tee Higgins leads the Bengals with the most first downs in the previous two games
In addition to all this, there is a good chance that Jalen Ramsey will be used to help contain Ja’Marr Chase. I would not expect Ramsey to follow him all over the field but look for Higgins to capitalize when Ramsey is on the opposite side of the field.
Best Super Bowl bet No. 3: Jessie Bates OVER 5.5 Tackles (+124)
I absolutely love this bet, and it really has nothing to do with how good Jessie Bates is. Bates is one of the best safeties in the league, and he is one of the main reasons the Bengals have made it this far.
The reason why I love this bet is that over the three games the Rams have played in the playoffs so far, five of the six starting safeties of the opposing teams they have faced have registered over six tackles.
The lone player who did not register at least six was Budda Baker, who had four, to which I will also include his partner at safety, Jalen Thompson, who had 12. In those three games, the six starting safeties combined for 46 tackles, an average of 7.5 each.
This is because the Rams scheme is hard to defend unless your safeties are making plays. Bates will have to help sure up some of the zone running schemes the Rams use while also being active in covering and tackling crossing routes.
Bates is a star, and in such a big game, he will look to make as many big plays as possible, making this a no-brainer bet especially considering the current odds.
Best Super Bowl LVI bet No. 4: Alternate total points OVER 51.5 (+130)
I love the over in this game. This is primarily because both teams are so confident that they will come out very aggressively early. I expect the winner to have to score at least 30 points, so it needs to be a relatively close game for 51.5 to be realistic.
Currently, the over/under line is set at 48.5, with odds of (-110).
On paper, the over may worry you because of some of the talents that these defenses have at their disposal, but both of these head coaches are offensive minds who will look to win by putting as many points on the board as possible. In addition to that, I expect these defenses to not keep the game low scoring but instead make big enough plays to put their offense in a position to score more points.
In the Super Bowl, the last five times that the over/under has been under 50 points, the over has hit four times. I added a field goal to my over-pick because I am so confident in this bet that the plus odds were worth the extra field goal. Also, a fun side note is California’s last 10 super bowls; The over has hit nine times.