Week 2 of the NFL season gets underway in traditional style with the Thursday Night Football which this week comes from the AFC North as the Cleveland Browns host the Cincinnati Bengals in a match where both teams are looking to bounce back from opening week defeats.
It is also a clash which pits the most recent number one draft pick against a former first claim in a previous draft in a match where there is no shortage of offensive talent but a real dearth of wins between the two teams.
Cleveland Browns
It certainly wasn’t a start to the season that the Cleveland Browns wanted although they are not going to be the only team to cop a big beating from the Baltimore Ravens this season. Whether they were underdone going into the campaign or just rusty remains to be seen but it goes without saying that they are going to need to offer up a pretty significant improvement in this match if they are going to come away with a first win from the campaign.
There is certainly no shortage of power and mite in the Browns’ offense. Much was made of the poor game that Odell Beckham Jr had last week but it isn’t all about him. The likes of Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt and Jarvis Landry should all be matchwinners in their own right. The real disappointment might have been how their defence struggled so badly against the Ravens but to be far there were quite a few defences which found the going tough at the weekend.
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Cincinnati Bengals
It wasn’t exactly the start to the season that the Cincinnati Bengals envisaged either although Joe Burrow might well have got his NFL career off to a winning start had kicker Randy Bullock converted a late field goal which would have sent the contest to overtime. The Los Angeles Chargers were there for the taking but the impression was that the Bengals are a team who have forgotten how to win. That is something they will need to snap out of very quickly else the pressure will swiftly be on again.
They can have no complaints with their own offensive setup. Although they have a rookie quarterback, he certainly isn’t devoid of talent around him with AJ Green, Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd among others in an offense which should be firing a lot better than it currently is. To be fair to the Bengals defence, they put up some decent numbers, albeit against limited opposition so that should give them some sort of confidence going into this one.
Betting
I’m always pretty big on being against road teams in these Thursday night games and that is very much the case here where the Cincinnati Bengals not only have to back up off a short week but without the football fitness of a pre-season or lengthy training camp behind them. I just think that will exaggerate the issues that road teams so often have playing on the short week any other season. That makes me lean heavily towards the Cleveland Browns here.
The handicap line here is six points which to be fair sounds a little on the high side but I would imagine what I have said above is factored into that. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the Browns are the better of the two teams on both sides of the ball and when you factor in the disadvantage of being away on the short week I expect Cleveland to bounce back from their defeat on Sunday with a pretty routine win here.
Tips
Back Cleveland Browns (-6) to beat Cincinnati Bengals for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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