Take the over in Browns-Bengals ‘Thursday Night Football’ game
Since the news broke that quarterback Johnny Manziel would start for the Cleveland Browns in today’s “Thursday Night Football” game against the favored Cincinnati Bengals, the line has moved from 10 points to 11½, according to Sunset Station sports book director Chuck Esposito.
The total has actually dropped from 46 to between 44½ and 45½ at Las Vegas sports books, but Gold Sheet handicapper Bruce Marshall expects Manziel to help push the number over the total.
“Manziel could contribute to the over with some mistakes to set up a short field for Cincinnati,” said Marshall (goldsheet.com). “I kind of prefer the over to the Bengals. It’s not that prohibitive a total, in the mid-40s. Manziel could end up doing a little bit tonight, but his mistakes could lead more directly to Cincinnati scores.”
The teams are a combined 12-3 on over bets this season, with the Browns going 7-1 and the Bengals 5-2.
As for the side, Cincinnati is 6-0-1 against the spread this season, but hasn’t been favored by more than a field goal in any game. Cleveland, which is 11-5-1 ATS as an underdog under coach Mike Pettine, has won three of the last five meetings with the interstate rival Bengals, including a 24-3 victory last season on Thursday night, almost exactly a year ago (Nov. 6).
“It looks like we’ll be rooting for Cleveland at kickoff,” Esposito said. “They seem to play their best games against Cincinnati.”
Marshall leans toward laying the points with the unbeaten Bengals (7-0).
“Cleveland looks to me to be unraveling earlier than they did last year,” he said. “This could turn ugly the rest of the season. Johnny Football didn’t look bad earlier this year, but if he’s the guy, that doesn’t bode well for Cleveland.
“I don’t like the way they gave up that game last week (in a 34-20 loss to the Cardinals). Good things were happening for them early, but Arizona caught and passed them in the second half. You can make a case for (taking) Cincinnati.”
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