The Cleveland Browns, who are still looking for their first win of the season, host the New York Jets at FirstEnergy Stadium on Thursday Night Football.
The Jets lost 20-12 at home to the Miami Dolphins in week 2 after routing the Detroit Lions 48-17 in their season opener at Ford Field; while the Browns followed a 21-21 tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers in week 1 with a heartbreaking 21-18 loss to the New Orleans Saints on the road.
The Browns will have to look out for a Jets defense that is making big plays and creating turnovers with their pass rush. The Jets had four sacks in their home opener against Miami and five interceptions against the Detroit Lions.
This matchup will prove to be a big challenge for the Browns offensive line and their quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who must be wary of not only the Jets defensive front but also watch out for Mo Claiborne and the rest of the Jets secondary.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Jets feature rookie quarterback Sam Darnold, who although he’s made some mistakes and thrown several picks he’s remained aggressive and ended last week’s game with 334 yards and a touchdown.
Darnold will play the Browns looking to prove them wrong for passing on him in this year’s draft and hoping to limit his mistakes as he already has three picks (and three touchdowns) in just two weeks of football.
The Browns opportunistic defense (eight takeaways in the first two weeks) must find ways to bring the pressure on Darnold and continue to force turnovers as he’s proven that he struggles badly when he’s not given much time to connect with his receivers.
If Cleveland’s defense does that look for the Browns to win a close game 2o-17.
The Browns, who have a 1-35-1 record in their last 37 games, find themselves as a three-point favorite. Furthermore, Cleveland is 2-0 this season against the spread and had not been the favorite in a regular-season home game since week 14 in 2015.
That was a game against the San Francisco 49ers that featured Johnny Manziel at quarterback and ended with a 24-10 win for Cleveland. Since then the Browns have been the underdog in 18 consecutive home games, the third longest streak of the last 15 seasons.
This is just the third time since 2015 that the Browns are the favorite as they also were favored in their week 3 game against the Colts last season. The Browns were a 1.5 favorite, but they lost 31-28.
