Monday Night Football betting: Broncos vs Bengals

The final installment of Monday Night Football this NFL season sends the 11-3 Denver Broncos on the road against the 9-4-1 Cincinnati Bengals in a key matchup in the AFC playoff race.

Denver heads into Paul Brown Stadium as a 3.5-point road favorite on the 5Dimes betting odds for this game with the total set at 47.5. [ Watch for line moves at Bovada today ]

In what has become a yearly occurrence the Broncos have already nailed down the AFC West title. They now have their eyes set on the bigger prize - the No. 1 seed in the conference for the postseason.

While they have won the majority of their games straight-up, they come into this game with a 7-7 record against the spread on the 5Dimes closing NFL betting odds. Denver is 4-3 ATS in seven previous road games and the total has stayed UNDER in four of its last five games.

The Bengals were clinging to a half-game lead over Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the AFC North division race heading into Week 16, so the pressure to win has been dialed up about as high as it gets.Cincinnati has won four of its last five games SU while going 3-2 ATS. On the year, it has a 7-6-1 record ATS with the total staying UNDER in nine of the 14 games. The Bengals are 5-1 ATS as underdogs this year.

Denver suffered through a 1-2 rough patch in early November both SU and ATS, but it appears to be back on track with its current four-game SU winning streak. The Broncos are now ranked fifth in the NFL in scoring with 29.1 points a game and their defense is ranked fourth in yards allowed (309.4).

Consistency on both sides of the ball has been an issue for the Bengals throughout the season, but they are probably playing their best ball of the year at just the right time. They are coming off a convincing 30-0 rout of Cleveland this past Sunday as 2-point road underdogs.

The one concern is a 4-2-1 SU (3-3-1 ATS) record at home after going a perfect 8-0 SU last season.

The Broncos have won six of their last eight road games both SU and ATS as favorites and they are a dominant 13-2 SU in their last 15 games against Cincinnati. The total has gone OVER in six of the last nine meetings between the two teams.