Via https://packerswire.usatoday.com
Cleveland Browns (2-4-1) vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2-1) at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA
NFL Week 8: 1:00 ET on Sunday, October 28, 2018
The Cleveland Browns travel to Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. These two teams have already faced each other in Week 1, a game that the two teams tied 21. That broke the Browns losing streak, a team that lost all 16 games last season. Before tying in the Week 1 contest, Pittsburgh had won six straight games between these two teams, 10 of the last 11, and 36 of the last 40 meetings between these two teams.
Browns Lose in OT to Tampa Bay, 26-23.
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While the Cleveland Browns have looked much better this season, bad luck still seems to be coming their way as they fell in overtime on Sunday to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 26-23. That is the fourth time in seven games this season that Tampa Bay has played an overtime contest, an NFL record for a single season.
Baker Mayfield looked good in the loss, throwing two touchdown passes and 215 yards of passing. That gives Mayfield 1291 passing yards this season with six touchdowns and five interceptions. He has been sacked 18 times, and Cleveland quarterbacks have been sacked 31 times in just seven games this season.
Rookie running back Nick Chubb had his best performance of the season, rushing for 80 yards against Tampa Bay. Jarvis Landry had 97 yards receiving and now has nearly 500 total yards receiving this season. He performed extremely well in Week 1 between these two teams, collecting 106 yards receiving.
Cleveland is struggling offense of late, averaging 21.6 points per contest while giving up 25.3 per game. They have average 357.4 yards of total offense per contest but are giving up 413.6. It has been the fact that this defense has not gelled early on which has made the offensive struggles more challenging.
Steelers Looking to Win Third Straight Coming Out of Bye Week
The Pittsburgh Steelers enjoyed thereby week this last Sunday, a nice respite after a big 28-21 victory over the Bengals in Cincinnati the week before. That gave them two straight victories heading into this contest.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was extremely impressive against Cincinnati, throwing for 369 yards and a touchdown. He has thrown for at least 300 yards in four of the team’s six games this season and has tallied over 2000 yards passing with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions through the first six weeks of the season.
With running back Le’Veon Bell out, the team has turned to James Conner who has done an exceptional job. Conner has rushed for 453 yards and has an impressive 4.4 yards per carry average. With teams looking to shut down Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster had a big performance in the Week 1 battle between these two teams, gaining 119 yards receiving.
Pittsburgh is averaging 28.5 points per contest, including 34.5 points in their last two games. They are averaging 417.7 yards of total offense per game, but only 88.7 on the ground. The defense is allowing 25.7 points per game and 380.1 yards of offense, but they are allowing only 97.8 yards per game on the ground.
Trends:
Cleveland:
- 11-23-1 ATS in their last 35 games against AFC opponents.
- 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games in October.
- 4-10-1 ATS in their last 15 games on the road.
- 4-14-1 ATS in their last 19 games against AFC North opponents.
Pittsburgh:
- 5-0 ATS in their last five games in October.
- 1-5 ATS in their last six games against AFC teams.
- 1-7 ATS in their last eight games at home.
- 0-5 ATS in their last six games following the bye week.
The Winner Prediction
Pittsburgh is favored by eight points in this contest, which is surprising. In the last four meetings between these two teams, Cleveland is 3-0-1 ATS and Pittsburgh has not won by more than four points since 2016. The Browns have a way of keeping these games close, and so it makes much better sense to take the points.
The Pick: Cleveland Browns +8 (-110)
The Total
In the last eight meetings between these two teams, the total has gone over only twice, with one of those being last December when the total was 52. The meeting this season was a 21-21 tie, and it would not be surprising to see that kind of a matchup once again. Pittsburgh struggles to score points against Cleveland, and that should keep this game under.
The Pick: Under 51.0 (-110)