The sportsbook NFL odds have the Cleveland Browns pegged as 7½-point home dogs as Chomps squares off with Poe and the Baltimore Ravens. But does it really make any difference who they face? After all, “it is a broken record – they fight hard. They do a lot of good things, and we do things that don’t give us a chance to finish football games,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said following Sunday’s 27-21 loss to Green Bay. As Bud Shaw put it, though, the only record Cleveland is closing in on they can tie but not break.
Chomps squares off with Poe
- Date: Sunday, 17th December
- Time: 1:05 PM
- Venue: FirstEnergy Stadium
NFL Betting Spread:
Ravens -7½ (-108) 40 (-110)
Browns +7½ (-112) 40 (-110)
Not even LeBron James can will the Browns to win or cover
The Browns blew a 14-point lead against the Packers in the third quarter. Green Bay’s Davante Parker scored, much to the chagrin of the King and the rest of Cleveland, two TDs to turn the tide. Thus beginneth the era of general manager John Dorsey. He was hired on the same day Sashi Brown was fired. Are you familiar with The Who? In particular Won’t Get Fooled Again? The Browns may just have gotten fooled again because it looks as if the new boss is the same as the old boss.
🤦🏾♂️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 10, 2017
🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️ https://t.co/PLWxXJ9yq3
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) December 11, 2017
Had the Browns managed to hold on to that lead, not only would they have won, but they would have covered the 2.5-point spread. As it turns out, their 2-11 ATS record is only slightly better than their 13-0 SU record. In their last six games at home, Cleveland is 1-5 against the sportsbook NFL odds spread. They are also 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Baltimore, and 1-8 ATS in its last 9 games when playing in Baltimore.
Ravens fly over the over
The Ravens lost 38-39 to the Steelers on Sunday, thus conceding the AFC North to the same. The Ravens gained a season-best 413 yards and scored over 30 points for the third time this season, but their lack of book smarts was their undoing. Moreover, “the Ravens can’t stop Brady or Roethlisberger,” the elite QBs in the AFC. That’s the bad news. The good news is their going up against a quarterback who plies his trade in the AFC but is quite a ways away from being elite. Furthermore, the Ravens remain, very much unlike the Browns, in playoff contention. On the other hand, the way they’re playing right now, they’re not about to make very deep inroads into the postseason.
One could say that Ravens like to fly to close to the sun, and while sometimes such flights of fancy aren’t entirely successful, one thing’s for sure and it’s the fact that, more often than not, Baltimore goes over the total. For example, in seven of their last nine games, including the last two straight, and five of their last six on the road.