Cleveland @
Pittsburgh -14:
First of all, this is a tricky game because we don’t know if
Cleveland coaching staff has woken up to the realities of Colt McCoy, or
not. If they have, this game could take
a massive shift in probability… if not, the writing is on the wall. Due to the fact that many haters have steered
clear of this thread (that I only started b/c
they pissed me off and I wanted to shut them up… I am going to give them
a chance to jump on me here…make myself a target by predicting this game in
detail…
This is a scary game, and anyone not treading lightly, or at
least cautiously is insane, or inexperienced, or just plain stupid. When you look at all the hot/cold variables
in this one it is enough to make smoke start coming out of your ears. Let’s take a look at it…
Inter-division game, whereas the home team is laying 14pts
of chalk. That alone makes me start to
lean towards the dog. The Favorite won 9
of the last 10—this might make some lean towards that trend continuing, but for
me it creates a fade or walk scenario in most cases. The favorite won the last 2 meetings by a
combined total of 50 pts. Pittsburgh has
looked like the dominat team in the AFC at times this season, and like a team
massively over-rated at others.
Clevelands D has been solid for the most part, and very much under the
radar due to the anemic Colt McCoy offense.
Cleveland absolutely can stay close to Pittsburgh IF they
continually pound the running game for 55%+ of the offensive plays… but will
they? I lost a bet on Cleveland on
Sunday thinking that their film break downs would make this need (to run the
ball) an absolute necessity in order to have a chance, but they didn’t run the
ball nearly often enough to stay with Baltimore (not counting Colt McCoys
scrambles/rushes, Cleveland attempted passes 73% of the time).
We cannot know what the motivation for Cleveland’s coaching
staff is at this point. Do they want to
keep letting McCoy pass, pass, pass to see if he is the franchise future, or
are they motivated to beat a hated rival in Pittsburgh Steelers and run the
ball to keep Pitt’s high flying Arial crew off the field for most of the game? McCoy cannot beat many, if any, teams in the
NFL on his arm (I doubt he ever will be able to). Is McCoy confident in his future as a NFL QB
and wanting to make solid/safe decisions, or is he concerned that he has to
start looking competent of he may be riding the bench somewhere next year, and
willing to take unwise chances in attempting to make something happen?