Cleveland Browns vs New England Patriots 10/16/22 NFL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots do battle Sunday in a week 6 NFL game from FirstEnergy Stadium.

The New England Patriots come into this game looking to get back to .500 after improving to 2-3 with a 29-0 win over Detroit in their last game. Mac Jones has thrown for 786 yards, 2 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 66% passing, but will miss significant time with an ankle injury. Bailey Zappe has thrown for 287 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception on 75% passing in relief. Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson have combined for 629 rushing yards and 4 TDs while Jakobi Meyers has a team-high 261 receiving yards and three other Patriot receivers have 100+ receiving yards this season. On defense, Ja’Whaun Bentley has a team-high 31 total tackles while Matthew Judon has a team-high 6 sacks and Deatrich Wise Jr. has 4 sacks as well this season.

The Cleveland Browns will also be looking to get back to .500 after back-to-back losses following a 30-28 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in their last matchup. Jacoby Brissett has thrown for 1,060 yards, 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 64% passing while Nick Chubb has a team-high 593 rushing yards with 7 touchdowns and Kareem Hunt also has 247 rushing yards as well this season. Amari Cooper has a team-high 304 receiving yards coming on 27 catches with 3 touchdowns while David Njoku has 289 receiving yards and Donovan Peoples-Jones has 191 receiving yards as well on the year. On defense, Grant Delpit has a team-high 30 total tackles while Myles Garrett has 3 sacks but will still miss a significant amount of time due to injury.

New England is 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 road games and 29-10 ATS in their last 39 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games in October. Cleveland is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 19-6-1 in their last 26 home games against a team with a losing road record.

I get why the Browns would be favored here as they’ve performed a lot better offensively than I expected them to if I’m being completely honest. On the other hand, we’re getting more than a field goal with a Bill Belichick coached team which is a great proposition to begin with, but also a Patriots team that’s rallied behind Bailey Zappe at QB and is really finding their offense in the face of adversity. The Browns are a solid team and they’re going to run the ball right at New England, but I expect New England to respond with some offense of their own and this just feels like far too low of a total for a game where both teams should get into the 20s. Give me the over here.