Two former Heisman Trophy winners will face off against each other this coming weekend in the desert as Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns pay Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals a visit. The Browns are +50000 to win Super Bowl 54.
The Browns notched another win last Sunday — their fourth in five games — by defeating the going-nowhere Cincinnati Bengals at home, 27-19. The win, however, did not feel comfortable for Cleveland with the Bengals outgaining the Browns, 451-333. Baker Mayfield added to his growing collection of errors this season by throwing two more interceptions while finishing the game with just 192 passing yards and zero touchdowns on 11-of-24 completions. It’s hard to trust the Browns’ passing attack despite arguably having the best 1-2 combo downfield in Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. Where the Browns have been better is on the ground. The Browns are ninth in the NFL with 124.5 rushing yards per game and second with 4.9 rushing yard per carry. The activation of Kareem Hunt has given the Browns a boost as a pass-catching tailback. Hunt has 158 receiving yards and a touchdown on 22 receptions in five games for the Browns so far.
The Browns are 3-1 against the spread (ATS) in their last four games overall.
Betting on the Arizona Cardinals (3-9-1)
The Cardinals still could not find the end of the tunnel, as they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday at home, 23-17 — Arizona’s sixth loss in a row. There’s still so much to learn for rookie quarterback Kyler Murray, who only had 194 passing yards on 20-of-30 completions. While he had a pair of touchdown passes, those were negated by the three interceptions he threw. He was also sacked five times for a loss of 29 yards. Poor offensive line play isn’t helping Arizona. Even when the Cardinals turned to the run game against Pittsburgh, they were only able to come away with 71 rushing yards on 22 carries. However, Kenyan Drake and David Johnson could see bigger spaces to run through against Cleveland’s defense that allowed 179 rushing yards to the Bengals in Week 14. Furthermore, the Browns are just 26th in the NFL with 128.2 rushing yards per game allowed.
The Cardinals, who are averaging a nice 4.7 rushing yards per carry, are 2-2 ATS in their last four home games.
