CLEVELAND BROWNS @ PITTSBURGH STEELERS 
Vegas Line: Browns + 14
Rob’s Line: Browns + 14.5
Of the three primetime games this week, one of them’s a humdinger. The other two look to be awful matchups, not really worthy of the national spotlight if truth be told, and it all begins at Heinz Field on Thursday night. And no, this isn’t the humdinger. Look towards Dallas for that beauty.
Baltimore beat Cleveland on the road by a comfortable 14 points last Sunday…ahem, did I say comfortable? The Ravens annihilated them and the 24-10 scoreline seriously flatters the Browns.
They don’t have a prayer this week so why’s the spread only around the two touchdown mark? Pittsburgh are three touchdowns the better team (OK, being generous, perhaps 17-18 points the better team), but we saw how dangerous it is to ask teams to cover by 21 points last week when the Colts scored three touchdowns on the Patriots in the fourth quarter, thus making a mockery of the 20.5 handicap.
I was actually going to go a tad lower than Vegas at 13.5 because the Steelers will be looking past this game to next Sunday and their trip to San Francisco. However, they have ten days between this one and then so I don’t expect them to let up too much when they take a sizeable lead. Plus, they need to show the watching Ravens their teeth and that won’t be difficult against a division rival so 14.5 it is and I’m happy with that.
The Steelers did last Sunday what they’d done on two previous occasions this season, namely come out in a home game after a week of being written off and wiped the floor with the opposition. Cincinnati now joins Seattle and Tennessee in feeling a Pittsburgh ‘Blacklash’. They scored 28 points in the second quarter and this bunch of players believe that December is where it all starts. Here’s the gospel according to linebacker James Farrior: ”We’re in it now. Right now is our time. We already started our playoffs.”
Cleveland right now is terrible at both running the ball and defending the run so the Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall should experience his best day in quite some time; lest we forget that the Browns gave up a ridiculous 290 yards rushing to the Ravens last Sunday. QB Colt McCoy will be relied upon to salvage whatever he can from this game and if it ends up being just pride, well this is the NFL, an unforgiving animal. This is the beginning of a brutal four game stretch for the Browns and I believe that mentally, they’re already done.
I’m not in the habit of liking teams minus two touchdowns, but a demoralised Cleveland outfit on the road in the shortest week a player can have don’t possess the look of a team capable of defending a 14 point spread. Steelers to cover.
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