Best Bets: Monday Night Football (Open Thread)

The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers experienced very different Week 1 games. The Browns dismantled the division favorite Bengals 24-3 with a suffocating defensive attack. That defense is stacked with good players including a Defensive Player of the Year favorite in Myles Garrett. That defense has disappointed Browns fans the last few years, unable to put it all together. Could this year be different?

On the other side, the Steelers got the doors blown off by the NFC favorite 49ers. Nothing looked good for the Steelers in their opener and if you’re a black and yellow faithful, you just have to hope it was nothing more than running into a buzzsaw. Mike Tomlin has famously never finished a season with a losing record so this is a big early test.

Here’s one game where I’m having a hard time not taking Week 1 into account. The Browns defense looked so good and I see no reason to not believe in them. I think the Steelers defense has the ingredients to be a good defense once again as well, which pushes me to roll with the under in this one.

These divisional games can be ugly, particularly in the AFC North, so I don’t think it’s crazy to think this one will stay close. However, the Browns defense finally popped last week and I’m going to lean into an elite unit duplicating what another elite defense did to Pittsburgh in Week 1.

Picks: Browns -2, Under 39.5

(Numbers courtesy of our partners at DraftKings Sportsbooks)

Cleveland at Pittsburgh is the second game tonight, so for our picks on the New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers game check out the embed here, and make your picks below.