Another week of action in the NFL 2024 season gets going in the Thursday Night Football, which for Week 12 takes us to the AFC North where the Pittsburgh Steelers will look to remain on course for the division title when they travel to take on the Cleveland Browns.
The Steelers’ win over the Baltimore Ravens has put them in with an excellent chance of winning the division and were they to pick up another victory against a division rival their claims will be strengthened. Cleveland will be looking to spoil that plan though.
Cleveland Browns
This clearly hasn’t been the season that the Cleveland Browns would have wanted. They go into Week 12 with a 2-8 record and won’t be achieving anything in terms of moving forward for the season from there. They have had injuries but in truth they were terrible before the Deshaun Watson injury and while they gave their supporters a little hope when they shocked the Baltimore Ravens a few weeks ago, it appears that was only a false dawn.
If there is a consolation from the wreckage of this season for the Browns it comes in the form of them not having to look too far for where it has gone wrong. Incredibly, an offense which has the likes of Nick Chubb, Jerry Jeudy and David Njoku in it, has only put up more than 20 points in one of their 10 matches. Their defence has been playing excellent stuff in the main but they have had absolutely no help from the offense so as far as a competitive entity is concerned their season is done.
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Pittsburgh Steelers
In contrast, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be delighted with how everything is going this term. There was a feeling over the last season or two that they were only a quarterback away from being a very competitive outfit and the additions of Justin Fields and Russell Wilson in that position has certainly clarified that. Those two have shared duties this term due to injury but they have added a dynamic to the Steelers offense that wasn’t previously there and Pittsburgh have flourished as a result.
The win over Baltimore last week has put the Steelers in control of their own destiny but this will be a real test for them. Their defence is one of the best in the league but it spent 60 minutes tackling Derrick Henry and co on Sunday and there isn’t much in terms of turnaround time ahead of this one so it will be interesting to see how that side of the ball goes in the second half here. It might be that Pittsburgh need to put the onus on their offense to get the job done for them in this one.
Betting
I suspect the consensus is that this will be a low scoring game because the Cleveland Browns’ offense hasn’t really got going this season but you don’t get many games without a barrel load of points on a Thursday night just purely because the turnaround and recovery time for the defences is so miniscule and I suspect that will be the case here and that actually there are more points than expected, especially the longer the game goes on.
You can get 4/5 on over 35.5 points in this match and that feels achievable. Pittsburgh are beginning to really catch fire on offense but that defence that tackled Derrick Henry and a powerful Baltimore Ravens side last week has to tire at some point here. Cleveland are actually moving the ball much better under Jameis Winston but their defence is beginning to creak at the seams too, and again with no recovery time that is unlikely to change here. I’ll play the over on a line which doesn’t take into account the short turnaround.
Tips
Back Over 35.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
