CLEVELAND BROWNS @ SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 
Vegas Line: Browns + 8.5
Rob’s Line: Browns + 9.5
Are Cleveland the worst 3-3 team in football right now? You wouldn’t find me arguing with you. They won the ugliest game of the season (probably of any season!) last week when they crawled their way past Seattle 6-3. If you’d have told me before the game that the Browns would only score six points, I would’ve been certain of my Seahawks being 3-3 come Sunday evening, assuming you can’t score 36 points in New York against the Giants and then very next game fail to score more than six against a team inferior in class to the Big Blue.
However, my immense disappointment at that outcome is not for here so I will dwell on an extreme Cleveland positive and that’s their league leading secondary led by stud cornerback Joe Haden and safety T. J. Ward.
What must be a huge disappointment to the Browns’ front office is how lopsided the team is, especially after the promise displayed by quarterback Colt McCoy and the rushing of Peyton Hillis last season. Hillis made it on to the cover of Madden 12 this season and the famed curse that accompanies such an honour has struck yet again, but it wasn’t all down to injury this year. Hillis let contract negotiations eat into the season and this was followed by questions surrounding his role with the team (that were quickly quelled) and now a hamstring injury. He didn’t practice on Friday because of this and I’d say he’s now a severe doubt to play.
What’s helping the secondary is the improved play on the defensive line and this can be attributed to shrewd drafting as their top two picks from this year’s crop, Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard, have comtributed massively in the trenches and if they’re looking to build this team via the traditional draft route, as opposed to free agency, defense is a sound place to start. A good D can at least keep teams in games and that appears to be what’s happening so far this season. However, it’ll be severely tested this week in San Francisco.
The 49ers have been the surprise of the NFL, winning each of their three road games and all of them in the Eastern time zone. The significance of this is that it’s the equivalent of them playing at 10am in California and teams on the west coast frequently fall victim to this. For San Fran to overcome this in what have all been close contests is a credit to the organisation and says a lot about rookie head coach Jim Harbaugh. He’s hard nosed and tough and his players are responding to him. He possesses old school football principles and I love that about both him and his team.
These old school principles are perhaps best exhibited by the Niners ranking sixth in the league in rushing, yet next to last when it comes to passing the ball. Tight end Vernon Davis leads the team in receptions (24) and receiving yards (271), neither of which will instill fear in to any defensive back and as Haden will more than likely be doing a number on the enigma that is Michael Crabtree, Davis can expect QB Alex Smith to look for him again when the need arises.
San Francisco’s offensive strength is the one-two punch at running back of Frank Gore and rookie Kendall Hunter. Gore is the undoubted star and will always receive the bulk of the carries, but should he go down injured, Harbaugh knows he can simply plug in Hunter and let him loose.
This is a game that the 49ers just should not even come close to losing and I perhaps should’ve given Cleveland a 10.5 start as they most definitely are at least two scores inferior to San Fran. For that reason and because I can see the Niners racking up a bunch of yards on the ground, I take them to cover the spread.
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