Browns vs. Bengals Free NFL Picks for Week 9 (Archive)
Two AFC North teams coming off of bad losses will attempt to get back on a winning track as the Browns and Bengals renew their rivalry in Cincinnati. The Browns fell to Pittsburgh to fall to .500 on the year and last place in the division.
The Bengals, meanwhile, suffered a shocking loss to the Jets to fumble away a chance to pull into first place. Let’s see the NFL odds.
Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, November 7, 2021 -1:00 PM EDT at Paul Brown Stadium
A pair of AFC North teams coming off of bad losses in Week Eight will attempt to get back on a winning track as the Browns and Bengals renew their rivalry in Cincinnati on Sunday. Cleveland fell to Pittsburgh, managing just 10 points and falling to .500 on the year, good for last place in a division for a team that opened the season hoping to make a deep playoff run.
The Bengals, meanwhile, suffered a shocking loss to a Jets team that had won just once all season. The defeat fumbled away a chance for Cincinnati to pull into first place in the division.
Brown Out on Offense
The Browns lost to the Chargers in Week Five, despite putting up 42 points on offense. Since then, Cleveland has scored a total of 41 points in three games. In their last five outings, the Browns have put up a point total in the teens four times, with the Chargers loss the only time they’ve managed more.
The offense, led by Baker Mayfield and a crew of promising receivers, was one of the main reasons the Browns were considered a dark-horse Super Bowl contender. Instead, Cleveland has seen its offense wither as the Browns have lost three of the last four to drop to .500 on the year and fall into last place in the AFC North.
The Browns are winless in three games against teams with winning records, and their next loss will match last season’s total for the entire year. Mayfield has battled an injury to his non-throwing shoulder, and, while he hasn’t been elite this year, hasn’t been the problem either.
The receivers have let him down, and Sunday’s 15-10 loss to the Steelers was no exception. Odell Beckham Jr. managed just one catch-all day, and throwing to Jarvis Landry was a 50/50 proposition. He caught five of 10 targets in the game, and both top receivers had several key drops, particularly as Mayfield tried to engineer a fourth-quarter comeback. Landry’s fumble helped put that hope on ice for good.
The NFL trade deadline is this week, and the question seems to be not whether the Browns will be shopping one or both of the expensive letdowns at receiver but if they’ll be able to find a taker. The Browns got Mayfield back after missing one game with the shoulder.
Cleveland also briefly saw right tackle Jack Conklin return. He’d missed two games with a knee problem, then dislocated his elbow in the first half and was carted off after they fitted him with an air cast on the field. The team also lost safety John Johnson, who suffered a neck injury and didn’t return.
Crushing Upset
There are bad losses, and then there’s the disaster that befell the Bengals on Sunday. Cincinnati entered the game winners of three straight and tied for first place with a Baltimore team the Bengals had beaten the week before. The Bengals were facing the one-win Jets, who were missing their starting quarterback—replacing him with someone making his first NFL start, as well as their top receiver.
Cincinnati then watched a double-digit lead evaporate in the fourth quarter and lost to the lowly Jets to fall a half-game of the AFC North lead and face difficult questions over whether they were really a contender. The defense, which had been strong all season and held MVP candidate Lamar Jackson in check last week, allowed Jets backup Mike White to torch it for 405 yards, the most by someone making his starting debut in a decade.
The Bengals allowed the Jets to score in the first quarter of a game for the first time this season, and on offense, Cincinnati also served up the first interception of the year for the Jets D. On the bright side, the team stayed relatively healthy, with guard Jackson Carman the only casualty, after he was helped off the field late in the game following a back injury.
The Pick
The Cincinnati players also said all the right things after the game, calling the loss “a wake-up call.” The team will need to show a similar maturity level to rebound this week. The Bengals are healthier and came into this past Sunday’s loss from a far better place than Cleveland. For your NFL pick, look for Cincy to right the ship with a big home win.
NFL Pick: Bengals -2.5 (-120) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
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