Monday Night Football features a pair of divisional games. Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers host Derek Carr and the New Orleans Saints in an early season NFC South showdown. An hour later, NFC South rivals Cleveland and Pittsburgh meet in the Steel City.
The road team is favored in both games. Carr and the Saints are a three-point favorite in Charlotte while Myles Garrett and the Browns are favored by two points at Pittsburgh according to DraftKings.
Jay Croucher and Vaughn Dalzell took a look at the games on today’s episode of Bet the EDGE.
Quite a few storylines in the AFC North tilt. Croucher (@croucherJD) is interested in seeing how the Browns’ signal-caller fares.
“I think the most interesting thing here is just how does Deshaun Watson go against the Steelers’ defense which was terrible against San Francisco, but you still expect to be a decent unit even without Cam Hayward. I thought Deshaun (Watson) even though he got the win in Week 1, and has a good rushing touchdown and he was functional enough on the ground but through the air he looked awful again. He looked like the same guy who was terrible the final six weeks of last season.”
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Dalzell (@VmoneySports) took aim at the two-point spread.
“I do think this is a line that you look at and you think this is way too easy. Cleveland obviously showed much more in Week 1 than Pittsburgh did… but there’s no way the Steelers can look that bad in back-to-back home games…on Monday Night Football. If you don’t know about Mike Tomlin on Monday Night Football, he’s 19-3 all-time - 86% winning percentage. He gets it done on Monday Night Football. He’s also 24-7-1 against the Browns in his career.”
The last time the Steelers were a home underdog to the Browns was 2019 and they knocked off Cleveland that day 20-13 with Devlin Hodges at quarterback.
Croucher is leery of Pittsburgh’s ability to stop Nick Chubb and the Browns’ ground game after last week’s debacle against the 49ers’ rushing attack, but Dalzell believes in Tomlin’s track record in similar situations.
“I like Pittsburgh. I will take the under as well. It’s another divisional under with two teams who are very familiar with one another.”
Enjoy the games and enjoy the sweat.
*Odds courtesy of DraftKings
