Giants vs. Bengals Betting Guide: Can Daniel Jones Capitalize on Early Success?

New York Giants at Cincinnati Bengals Betting Odds

• Spread: Bengals -3
• Over/Under: 42.5
• Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET

The Bengals host the Giants in one of six Preseason Week 3 matchups on Thursday night. Let’s take a look at key storylines for both teams, complete with betting analysis.

New York Giants

All the cool kids laughed at the Giants when they drafted Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick, but he's managed to overcome the nation-wide disrespect and pretty much dominate the first two weeks of the preseason.

Overall, he's completed 16-of-19 (84%) passes for 228 yards (12 yards per attempt) with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. While that's obviously a small sample size, Giants fans have good reason to be excited about the performance of Danny Dimes through two weeks.

Jones displayed the ability to cycle through multiple reads in last week's performance. He's demonstrated plenty of arm strength throughout the preseason, and we haven't even seen him tap into his potential rushing upside yet (17 rushing scores in 36 career games at Duke).

Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals have their hands full entering the season, as they've managed to already lose multiple key contributors on the offensive line before Week 1.

• First-round offensive tackle Jonah Williams is out for the season with a torn labrum
• Left guard Clint Boling retired
• Backup guard Christian Westerman retired

The Bengals will need their playmakers to be as good as ever if they want to put up points without the benefit of a dominant offensive front.

Joe Mixon seems to have already received this message loud and clear.

The Bengals opened as 1.5-point favorites but have since moved up to -3. But the early success of Jones, combined with the likelihood that Eli Manning won't be completely overwhelmed by preseason pressure schemes, has me leaning toward the G-Men in this one.

LEAN: Giants +3