NFL Betting Previews: Atlanta Falcons at Cleveland Browns

Added on Oct 09, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

More NFL betting action for Sunday as the Atlanta Falcons hit the road to take on the Cleveland Browns. The Falcons have won three straight, scrapping out a come from behind victory at home against San Francisco last week. Cleveland beat Cincinnati last weekend for their first SU win of the season.

Atlanta Falcons at Cleveland Browns
October 10, 2010 10:00 AM Pacific

NFL games are obviously more complex than a simple position to position matchup, but in this game we can’t underestimate the huge mismatch at the quarterback position. The Falcons’ Matt Ryan is a solid NFL quarterback who can throw the ball downfield when he has to, but has command of a variety of weapons in a balanced offensive attack. Wide receiver Michael Jenkins is ‘questionable’ for this contest, but with Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez as passing targets and Michael Turner running the ball they can win without him. The Falcons should be able to move the ball effectively against a somewhat slow Cleveland defense that will play without their best linebacker, D’Qwell Jackson.

On the other side of the ball, the Browns are expected to get Jake Delhomme back in the lineup for this game (he’s currently listed as ‘probable’ on the NFL injury report) but we’re not sure how much that matters. Delhomme is at best on the downside of his career after being run out of Carolina and at worst completely washed up. In any case, he’s not a huge upgrade over Seneca Wallace. The Falcons have been an excellent pointspread investment in this price range–in games with a line from -3 to +3 they’re 9-4 SU/ATS since 2008. At one point they were a team that it was hard to trust on the road, but they look to have matured enough to win in enemy stadiums as evidenced by their victory at New Orleans a couple weeks back. Again, this is a game where we’re not excited about being on the same side as the ‘public’ but given the huge disparity in talent between the teams we’ll back the Falcons.

Bet Atlanta Falcons -3 over Cleveland Browns