Houston opens up 5 1/2 point Favorites.

That's actually showing us some respect considering Home Field is an automatic 3 Point spot.

Trap Game?

8 game winning streak and playing the team who's breathing down their necks in Indy next week.

WE GOTTA CHANCE, DAWGS!!!!!

This will be a true test for us.

We've been playing very well as of late. But Houston is a very talented team that is really rolling right now.


The spread is certainly closer than I'd have expected.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I just don't know if we're at the level to really compete with a team like this. Kind of like San Diego and Kansas City.

Can't wait to see though, and I'd love to be pleasantly surprised! If we can beat Houston, we can beat just about anyone. Just would have to win like another 4 more games or something after that, and then maybe we can make the playoffs!

I agree. Don't think we have the talent to keep up

Look who they've beaten the last 8.

Not impressive.

Texans 31
Browns 20

We always have a chance. This will be a tough one. The Texans have one heck of a D-line and are the hot team in the league, winning 8 in a row.

I think they are soft against the TE position. Njoku needs to have a big game. I would also work Devalve in to the mix. I think Devalve can get a fairly long score against them. Maybe two. Devalve is my sleeper MVP pick.

As for the score, I think we come up short, but with Bake, you never know. I think we have a shot to keep in inside the 5.5 line.

28-14 Texans. One of the best running teams in nfl against our run defense..gonna be a long day. Wonder if Mitchell will be back

Mitchell cannot return until next week. League rule.

Couple more things to remember:

1) Short week for Texans. Played Monday night.
2) was a very emotional game since Bob McNair died

They might not have much left emotionally and physically. Its imperative that the Browns punch them in the mouth to start the game, just like with Cincy. They may not have the fuel to punch back, despite what seems like overwhelming talent issues.

Also, Bill O'Brien, IMO, is a bad coach with an inflexible system. If they can devise a good game plan, it might be enough to slow them down due to lack of adjustments.

Were the players that emotional about Bob McNair? I thought most hated him?

Browns continue to roll and win this one.

It'll be interesting to watch the Browns o-line vs their d-line.

Baker will have to continue to make quick decisions to negate their pas rush.

Should be an entertaining game.

i have faith in baker.

what i dont have faith in is our O line vs Clowney and Watt.

Against my better judgement I'm going to pick an upset win with a field goal in the last few seconds.

34-33 Browns

I dont really like our odds in this one...

If somehow Houston lays an egg...then obviously we have a chance to capitalize.

I feel they are going to take advantage of our blitzing, and put points on us in a hurry.

Their oline is amongst the bottom of the league, however Lamar Miller and Watson have been hot...even while behind that line.

What scares me, is our Oline...Bengals have a nice front 4...Houston has a nice front 7...I'm sure we will come out realizing, Gregg Robinson and Hubbard are only marginal starters...I think Houston will attack the outside greatly. Also I see them picking on Njoku, they are going to go hard at wherever he blocks from (they have to lick their chops watching film on him)

Would be something to win...I just think we end up being phased out on O, thus leading to a once again an exhausted D.

I'm hoping everything I wrote is wrong.

On paper, they easily the better team. But any given sunday. We finally have a roster THAT COULD WIN any game. Our next step is building on this roster to make it a team THAT SHOULD WIN any game. That's the difference.

HOU should win this game, but we COULD win this game. We need to catch them sleeping and contain their Offense.

how insane would this be

Line has moved to 6.

Love the Browns to cover.

Not sure about the win.

Feeling uneasy about this one.

I'm gonna guess it will be the Texans with the win but of course I'll be rootin' for our Browns.

Well first of all luck scored 35 against this team mayfield has out played luck the past 3games.
Houston gets beat like a drum by excellent qbs
Ie look at the playoffs
Defense Barkley went for 140 yards against this team
Miller running back he is a average running back
Yes tthey are good but they are not as good as Atlanta
Defense outside of there outstanding 3 they are average at best they are starting a 34 year dB to guard Perriman or Calloway I could throw into that window
Watson he is not as good as either Ryan or dalton and plays behind the worst offensive line
Cleveland rolls 35-20

we'll see where the line ends up. It won't go above 7 .. I bet 5.5

You lost all credibility on saying Dalton was better QB than Watson.

Browns in a squeaker. 28-27

If the Browns are going to win, they are going to have to play well in all 3 phases of the game. I think that we can play well on offense. I think we can play well on defense. Special teams is a huge question mark.

I am going to guess that Williams is getting through to all of the coaches and units of the team, and we win a 26-24 game. (mainly because I want it to happen)

I don't have the feeling we'll win this one, but I do think we have a couple wins left in the tank.

28-20 houston

I can definitely see us beating carolina and cincinnati at home. That'd give us 6 wins. One more and I'd call it a great year

Sorry there is a lot of people that agree with me

Browns win 35 to 17.
I believe we have some mismatches on offense with Njoku, Callaway, Perriman and Duke. Their secondary doesn't cover for long. Either D gets there quickly or the big play is there to be had.

Defense its all about discipline. WE play disciplined football maintaining our gaps and controlling the edge we shut them down. We lose contain on Miller or Watson and its a race we are gonna lose.

I think this is a pretty even matchup, we are on the road but this one means more to us. Plus I really like Callaway on a fast field.

This week, Tyrod Taylor is proven to be prophetic: "We will shock the world."


Kitchens figures out how to attack Watt, Mayfield and Chubb keep churning, Callaway keeps growing, Landry shows up BIG, and Ward takes care of business.

It's a slugfest, but the Browns come back to the CLE with back-to-back road wins.

If that happens I’ll be a very happy camper.

I actually think the Browns win as well. We have pretty much every intangible breaking our way this week. I also think you make a good point about some of the matchups we have that can expose them on D. Man I wish we had a legit #1 WR who could take the top off the defense. This is the kind of game Landry could ball out if he wasn't going to be the focus of their defense. Ahhh to dream.

The thing that concerns me is the youth on this team and how they respond to the success. Still I'm picking the Browns......

Browns 31
Texans 27

They get caught looking past us this Sunday and we go up 21 - 0, I just want to hear the radio feed from the Houston station, when their play-by-play guy says, "Houston, we have a problem".

We you have a QB, you always have a chance to win. We have a QB.

Did TT really say that this week? ...

They have one HUGE advantage over us ..

How many guys we gonna need to leave in to block there DE’s ... no clue what the stats are .. but my eyes tell me Njoku is staying in a TON ... not chipping .. staying in .. he has a few catches over the last few weeks after “leaking” out as a safety valve ... but its WELL into the play ... we may have to leave someone in on both sides ... its a reality this week .. they gots two we can’t block ..

The texans aren’t all that and have some flaws ... but neither are we and so do we ... this is GREAT for what we’ve been used to .. we still gots a ways to go ..

We’ll have a real good gauge of just how far we’ve come Sunday ...

Hmmm ... Ward on Hop?

That oughta stir up some chatter ...

Completely!

I hate Bama, but I have to root for Bulldogs to lose. Sorry Nick.

Kitchens has been dialing up a lot of max protect with two TE's & three back sets, with quick passes and 5 step drops. I don't expect that to change much. Expect we'll see more screens, and the occasional 5 wide to spread them out.

It is really hard to predict a win for the Browns.

Could they - absolutely. Will they - maybe.

I'm hoping for some luck to bounce our way - and a win. Defense has not had many turnovers the last 3 or 4 games .... maybe that will come back to us and be the deciding factor?

31-28 Browns.

Teams score on them, I think we can too. Their record includes wins against some bad teams, so there is that. I think running at them can marginalize their DEs. They are not as good as NO, and we basically gave NO their hardest game.

Going to be tough to win on the road, and I think the emotion will be on their side with McNair passing. I think they should be favored, and probably have the better shot to win, but if we hold their offense in check, I think we can beat them.

I'm not betting against Baker in this one.

I love Freddie.....keeping it loose with the guys

Texans should win but they are coming off an emotional win on a short week and have a huge game next week... could be a trap game... I'd pick texans if I had to but we have a chance

Not this week, back in preseason when talking about the season ahead.

I'm thinking one of two things will happen. it will be a 6-7 game or a 42-29 game.

I'm going to say that it will be 28-24 Browns.

Why Not??!! Let's do it!

I'm starting to come around on the Browns winning this.

j/c:

I predict Callaway has a big game- two over the top bombs, chubb will chew up some yardage, browns capitalize on turnovers- 28-14 brownies

Anyone know what our uniforms will be? I suggest we ban the white on white combination, until we get new unis in 2020.

And people don't like this guy?!

The color rush uniforms are by far the best we have. Should be our full time uniforms imho.

Browns with the last second FG 27-24..

**from our FG kicker who hasn't been talked about in weeks because we've kicked 12 extra points and only 1 FG in the last 3 weeks.

I see many of you guys are still struggling with believing that we can hang with anyone. That doesn't mean we will but we sure as hell can.

The days of teams out talenting us are OVER, I think we win and just as convincingly as we have been. The line maybe 5.5 and the odds makers are having the same problem many of you are having is it a mirage?

A Hell NO

I have a feeling that the Texans will ..........


be upset this weekend!

I don't know the score, but I just have this feeling deep in my gut .....

My heart says Browns, my head says Texans. Can we win? Yes. Will it take our best game? Yes.

We’re on the cusp of being able to win game by playing a “good” game. At this point, I still feel we’re at the level of needing to play a “great” game to win. That will change soon.

Browns win, 27-23.

teams are afraid of Garrett. They get the ball
out quick. Ward will control whomever their best is - or we'll double him and Ward can lock down their no. 2.

Romeo once used the immortal Leon Williams as a spy in Atlanta when we played Vick, it worked and we won. A spy on a QB isn't a bad thing.

He's also not worrying about covering receivers, and can be a key piece against an RB when the quarterback hands it off.

I'm kind of surprised at Houston only being 5.5-6 point favorites. That implies a good amount of respect for the Browns.. and also that maybe the Texans aren't quite as good as their 8 game winning streak would suggest.

In any case, I have to think the Texans win this one. They're just a little further along in their development and our tackles against their edge rushers is a big problem. There's only so much you can do to scheme around that.

It was always likely that some of those close, early season losses were going to catch up with us.

We'll see though, I expect a competitive game, and wouldn't be shocked if the Browns pulled it off.

The thing I was surprised was that the Texans haven't had tons of points this year. I thought they'd be one of the better offenses

I think Houston will win this one, but I expect us to keep it close.

Their defensive line will probably be too much for us to handle.

Njoku should have a pretty good day, as they usually struggle to defend the tight end. Gonna need him to help open up things on the outside and in the run game.

Get Duke involved as well.

Browns win, of course, 26-23

Regarding the 6 point spread, always remember, Vegas doesn’t have a favorite team, they just want to pull in bettors.

That line smells veeeerrryyyyy fishy...

I’d take Browns, and thank you for the 6 points. I know I’m a fan, but that seems like a good bet

Watson is coming off injury from last year. He's had a couple nice games and seems to maybe be heading back to his 2017 season form.

We are one of the few teams who faced Watson last year. He's turnover prone and we like to take the ball away. We held him to 23 yds on 6 carries last year. 1 of their TDs came off a pick 6. Their defense also added a safety. They're beatable, we shouldn't be intimidated by their 8 wins in a row. Streaks are meant to be broken.

Dang ... 9 in a row .. no easy feat ...

Hmmmm ... i think we may have a better shot than the pundits think ...

I may have to lay 100 on the dawgs ... never bet before ...

We gots this ...

Texans have one helluva Dline. Our Oline has been playing well, but this might be the best test for them. We'll know at the end of the game, regardless of score, if we have an Oline that can stand up.

Let's not forget, we have a pretty darn good Defense as well.

out of sheer loyalty, I'm picking the Browns to win.

It's a little more complicated than that. It would be more accurate to say Vegas wants to make money, and also curtail risk to some extent. This is why when big money is bet on one side, the line tends to shift that way to balance things out. Not always though.

If the money is on a bad bet though (bad for the bettors), don't count on the line moving..

Cleveland 36
Texans 21

It was already mentioned by another poster, but the Texans offense is not typically explosive, by that I mean they haven't put up large point totals in many of their games Just looking at the win/loss record their most impressive wins while on this streak, in my opinion, have been @Indy 37-34; @Denver 19-17 and over the Titans at home 34-17. They beat Dallas before their defense woke up and Cooper changed the Dallas offensive balance. They beat Washington the week after Alex Smith blew out his ankle.

I think it will come down to which defense is able to exert its will on the opponent including winning the turnover battle.

Browns 28, Texan 24.

I love the progress I see from our team. I believe that on any given Sunday we can compete with anyone. Yet at the same time we are a very young team. As such, you will take some bumps and bruises along the way. I think tomorrow we will encounter some bumps and bruises.

The eight wins in a row by the Texans is no accident. They will throw things at our OL they simply aren't used to. Hubbard is a very weak RT and Robinson isn't equipped to handle players like J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus. Mayfield will see D looks tomorrow he hasn't seen before. The same goes for our entire OL.

Covering the spread is very doable. But Houston has a descent O and a D that is dominant. We're doing very well in the growth department but I just think too many are over evaluating exactly how far along we are in the process verses high quality opponents.

Don't bet against Baker.

No. Do it! We need that...

I get that Houston has a great defense, but their offense is good, not great. I think our defense is better than many they have faced lately. We as Browns fans tend to make the opponent way better than they are. Teams score on their defense, and I think we can too. If our defense plays well and stops their run game, I see a low scoring battle that can go either way.

Barkley ran that d into the ground with a very weak line
Merciless does not like to take on huge lineman when trying to stop the run

I hope Freddie runs max protect and that crazy 3 back set and we run the ball down their throat and hit some play action for big gains

I don't like making predictions, especially when it comes to the Browns, but gun to my head I think Houston pulls away late in a decently competitive game.

If the Browns can run the ball a little bit, and pressure Watson, I do think they can come out of Houston with a win. I seriously can't wait for this game.

I just hope that an avalanche of negativity doesn't come out if we don't win. I think we're playing with house money at this point, and any wins now are extra. We're still young, we have a patchwork of a coaching staff, and some early failures and unfortunate officiating mistakes kinda did our season in anyway.

I just really look forward to watching this group every week. I can see some real growth which is all I ever asked of Hue Jackson during his tenure.

the 3 back set may slow down their rush, so maybe

I don’t feel great about this one. I’m worried that we blitz heavy and Watson runs on us. We give up too many rushing yards. Texans play conservatively on offense but it works.

Houston 24 Browns 13

this .gif creeps me out.

just sayin'....

We'll see if they're conservative today. It also depends how we can stop their run

I see a Browns defense that does what they do week in week out. For that reason I see no special wrinkles to address an average offense.

The offense needs to attack their defense at its strength work to confuse Watt, double up the TE over him block and release behind him then dunk it over his head for positive yardage, make Houston adjust. Kitchen I have the utmost confidence will employ an offense that attacks and confuses Houston.

The BIG key is to get the lead force Houston to try to catch up or keep pace.

This team is well equipped to deal with Houston with their ability to attack defenses from every possible avenue available to any offense. Make sure you deal with Watt then put the hammer down. The rest of their defense can be dealt with.

Will win this game easily, IMO.

As much as I love our Browns...I dont see why everyone thinks this will be a cake walk for us.

I don't see how people think that this is going to be a cake walk for Houston. To reads these threads, you would think their defense is the greatest that ever played. They have a dynamic player, but they can be scored on.

27-23 Browns!!!!!!!

This game is a real test.

I would like to be confident but I am not.

If we are able to win; I will be super impressed.

It will no doubt further the discussion of keeping Williams and Freddie in their current roles.

Just for grins since I hate picking against us.

Browns - 28

Texans - 17

final guess: Houston 30 Cleveland 20