Cleveland is coming off of their bye week. Detroit upended reeling Green Bay 30-17 on Monday night.
The Browns are averaging 13 ppg over their last 5 games and just don’t possess the weapons or QB play to scare anyone. Rookie QB DeShone Kizer is slated to start and is tied for the league lead with 11 interceptions. RB Duke Johnson leads the team in both receptions (36) and yardage (324) as the wideouts aren’t providing much help to the rookie QB. Detroit’s pass rush should be able to get to Kizer as Browns QBs have been sacked 23 times on the year and All-League LT Joe Thomas is done for the year. Cleveland’s running game is averaging 95 ypg as lead back Isaiah Crowell is averaging a mere 3.4 ypc. The Lions run defense has been good this year (3.6 ypc, 90 ypg) and they held their last 2 opponents to 75 and 78 yards respectively.
Detroit’s offense runs through the right arm of QB Matthew Stafford and don’t expect that to change this week. The Lions are averaging 3.2 ypc and only 80 ypg on the ground, plus they face a Cleveland defense that is limiting opponents to 2.9 ypc and 84 ypg. RB Ameer Abdullah will get some carries to keep the defense honest but the game plan will be centred on Stafford. WRs Golden Tate and Marvin Jones will be the top targets and RB Louis Riddick is always a handful coming out of the backfield. This may be a rare occasion where TE Eric Ebron can be a bigger part of the offense. He is plagued by dropped passes and hasn’t nearly lived up to his 10th overall draft status but he faces a defense this week that allows nearly 8 catches per game to opposing TEs. Stafford has been sacked 26 times on the year and rookie DE Myles Garrett and his team-leading 4 sacks will have to be accounted for.
Public Money Consensus
In this week 10 NFL matchup between Cleveland and Detroit have the public evenly split on this point spread with 50% aside. The over/under bettors believe this game will go over the posted total line of 44 with over 60% on board.
