NFL picks, Week 13: Chief and Bengals have analysts split

The Week 13 showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals has NFL experts split when making their predictions.

At this point in the regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs are in full control of their own destiny. Not only do they have an ultra-firm grip on the top spot in their own division, giving them a wide-open portal into the postseason, but they’re also presently sitting with a full one-game lead on every other contender in the entire AFC.

The race for a top seed in the postseason is good for that rare first-round bye, which is why it’s so important for the Chiefs to maintain the hold that they’ve earned thus far. The biggest hurdle to that goal is likely before them in Week 13 with a visit to the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals are the defending AFC champions, a team that knocked off the Chiefs twice last season. Few teams can say they’ve had the Chiefs number, but Cincy twice took out Patrick Mahomes and company in very close games in which the Bengals absolutely owned the second half of both contests.

So how will the Chiefs answer this season? Will the Bengals continue their dominant run over the conference’s top team?

When perusing through this week’s varied picks and predictions from NFL experts, it’s clear that analysts aren’t sure what to think about this matchup—at least in any unified sense.

Over at CBS Sports, John Breech thinks history will repeat itself with a strong first half from K.C. followed by a dramatic comeback by Joe Burrow. He has the Bengals winning by three, which would fall right in line with both matchups from last season.

Bill Bender takes things the other way and predicts a close four-point win for the Chiefs at The Sporting News. His method for picking: asking which team has more to prove. That would be K.C. after losing twice to Cincy last year. Pete Prisco of CBS Sports agrees and has the Chiefs taking a close one.

Joe DiTullio at The Game Haus has the Bengals as his pick, as does B.J. Rudell of the Pro Football Network. The latter states Ja’Marr Chase is the difference here, and if he plays, “I’m comfortable taking the home team to win and establish a growing claim as ‘the team to beat’ in the AFC.” Sayre Bedinger of FanSided also points to Chase as the reason he’s predicting Cincy by three.

Our friends at the Big Lead, however, are backing the road team to win, albeit a close game with a 37-34 predicted final score.

The Chiefs and Bengals will get things underway on Sunday afternoon at 3:25 p.m. C.T.