NFL Lines: Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers

Written October 18, 2009 by Black Widow

In an AFC North rivalry, the Cleveland Browns visit the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday in Week 6 NFL action. The Browns have opened the season at 1-4 and are coming off their first win of the season, a 6-3 victory at Buffalo. Pittsburgh has won back-to-back games over the Chargers and Lions, including their 28-20 win over Detroit last week to improve to 3-2 this year. How will this one play out Sunday? NFL Lines show the Steelers -14 over the Browns with a Total Set of 37.5 points.

The defending Super Bowl champion Steelers have won 11 straight games over the Cleveland Browns. Dating back further, Pittsburgh is 16-1 in their last 17 meetings in this one-sided division rivalry. The Steelers have found their running game again behind second-year pro Rashard Mendenhall, who has helped them put together back-to-back victories. Defensively, the Steelers suffered a big blow against Detroit when defensive end Aaron Smith suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. He is certainly one of the unit’s best players, but the defense will welcome back SS Troy Polamalu Sunday against Cleveland. Polamalu is the catalyst of this defense, and a his absence has been a big reason why the Steelers have only forced 4 turnovers this year. Pittsburgh did get 7 sacks last week against Detroit, but this defense has been awful in the fourth quarter, and so has the offense. The Steelers have been outscored 55-13 in the fourth quarter this season, the league’s worst margin. If they are going to cover this two-touchdown spread, they will have to improve in that area Sunday.

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Cleveland snapped a 10-game losing streak with their 6-3 win at Buffalo last weekend. Jamal Lewis carried the load with 117 rushing yards on 31 attempts. He had to because Derek Anderson could not get anything going in the passing game, which could have been partly due to the fact that they traded Braylon Edwards earlier in the week. Anderson went 2-of-17 passing for just 23 yards in the game. He also threw his 5th interception in just 84 attempts this season. More dropped passes were partly to blame for his struggles, too. The Browns have scored 6 or fewer points in 3 of their last 4 games, and they are averaging 11.0 points/game this season. They’ll have to be much more efficient offensively Sunday to hang with Pittsburgh. Big Ben has never lost to the Browns in his career, and the Steelers are averaging 162.6 rushing yards/game against Cleveland in the last 17 head-to-head meetings. The Steelers get RB Willie Parker back this week from injury, and he’ll team with Mendenhall to try and keep this dominant rushing attack afloat.

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One Response to “NFL Lines: Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers”

Brian on October 19th, 2009 11:26 pm

I think that the browns could have a shot at this season but they have to step it up quiet a bit. There is a lot of heat this year. Still have faith. Go browns!

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