Week 7: Seattle Seahawks at Cleveland Browns

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS @ CLEVELAND BROWNS

Vegas Line: Seahawks + 3

Rob’s Line: Seahawks + 3.5*

This could be a low scoring affair, borne out by the plain fact that these two teams boast offenses ranked 28th in the league (Cleveland) and 32nd (Seattle) and defenses ranked 5th (Cleveland) and 9th (Seattle). This could be football of old school order…a blue collar city on a cold day with defense dictating matters as each team try to wear down the other in search of victory.
I was tempted to offer the Seahawks a 4.5 point start after Cleveland kept it to within seven points in Oakland last week when I fully expected them to be blown away (they did trail 24-7 though and were outwitted by the Raiders’ special teams unit when they allowed a TD on a fake field goal…that said, it was a thing of beauty). Then the memory of Seattle’s quite incredible victory at the Giants two weeks ago honed into view, accompanied by the guts they displayed that afternoon and I trimmed my line to just over a field goal. As an avid Seahawk myself, I’m their harshest critic, but they deserve respect for that victory and should head to Cleveland with a spring in their step.
That step could become even more sprightly should Cleveland be without the services of stud cornerback Joe Haden for the second week in a row and running back Peyton Hillis. The ‘Hawks rank seventh in the league against the run so it figures that the Browns would like to have Hillis available to create a one-two punch with Mario Hardesty. With both injuries likely to be game time decisions, I’d expect both Haden and Hillis to play.
Seattle has no such injury concerns, well, none they didn’t already know about before their bye last week. While QB Tarvaris Jackson has apparently made some progress from the pectoral injury he picked up in New York, the Seahawks are preparing for this one fully expecting Charlie Whitehurst to start. Should Haden not suit up, Whitehurst will definitely see receivers Doug Baldwin and Sidney Rice finding more room than they may have anticipated and they’re proving a very capable pairing. Baldwin has been a sensation as an undrafted rookie and Rice, when injury free, is a threat to any secondary.
Browns’ QB Colt McCoy has been fairly liberal in his distribution this season, with seven players boasting 10 or more catches (rookie Greg Little leads the way with 20) and his 8 TDs to 3 INTs isn’t in much danger of looking statistically worse come the end of 60 minutes on Sunday.
This is a contest I find intriguing, even aside from my Pacific North West leanings, but if I were allowed to be partisan for the briefest of moments, I like Seattle’s chances of coming away with the W so the points on offer here are attractive. However, Cleveland’s defense needs to be respected, including in the handicapping sense, and to win by four and cover the spread is also easily achievable.
I take the Browns to cover, with McCoy making less mistakes than Whitehurst.
*UPDATE: Haden has definitely been ruled out, which means I now make Seattle 2.5 point underdogs. However, I still take Cleveland to cover.