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Sports Interaction Staff
Browns vs. Steelers Point Spread: NFL Wild Card Odds, Prediction
The Steelers are the conference’s No. 3 seed and 5-point favourites on the NFL odds.
NFL Playoffs Point Spread and Betting Analysis
To win the AFC title Pittsburgh is +1000 and +2200 to win Super Bowl 55. Cleveland is +2500 and +4500, respectively. The Browns are one of four active franchises to never play in a Super Bowl along with the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions. None of those three clubs sniffed the playoffs.
Both the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin and Browns’ Kevin Stefanski are NFL Coach of the Year candidates. Tomlin was probably the favourite when his team started 11-0, but likely won’t win after losing four of the final five games. Stefanski is in his first year as an NFL head coach and led Cleveland to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. That was the league’s longest postseason drought.
These rivals split in the regular season, each winning at home. Take little from this past Sunday’s 24-22 Browns victory as Pittsburgh rested several key starters. In Week 6, the Steelers smashed the visiting Browns 38-7.
Cleveland has lost 17 straight games in Pittsburgh and is 1-4-1 ATS in the past six there.
Cleveland Browns
QB Baker Mayfield really improved this year under Stefanski and in fact was the most accurate deep ball thrower in the NFL as his adjusted completion rate on throws more than 20 yards downfield was 51.9 per cent. The Browns used a lot of play-action to open up passing lanes as they have arguably the best 1-2 running back punch in the NFL in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. Cleveland ranked third in the league in rushing at 148.4 yards per game.
Defensively, the team will be without a key player as end Olivier Vernon suffered a ruptured Achilles’ tendon on Sunday and is done for the season. Vernon has nine sacks, second only to Myles Garrett (12.0) on the team. Cleveland is 3-11 ATS in its past 14 road games.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers ranked third in the NFL in scoring (19.5 ppg) and total defence (305.8 ypg) this season led by linebacker TJ Watt. He led the league with 15 sacks, and 26 tackles for loss and most likely will give the Watt family a fourth NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award – brother JJ of Houston won it three times. Offensively, 38-year-old QB Ben Roethlisberger (among those who didn’t play Week 17) had an up-and-down season.
The Steelers do have one of the league’s promising rookie receivers in second-round pick Chase Claypool, out of Notre Dame and British Columbia. He had 62 catches for 873 yards and nine scores while also rushing for two TDs, although Claypool’s production did drop off pretty significantly starting in December. Pittsburgh is 11-5 ATS in its past 16 vs. the AFC North.
CLE
PIT