{"id":17926,"date":"2011-09-23T09:23:05","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T14:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17926"},"modified":"2011-09-23T09:23:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T14:23:05","slug":"nfl-predictions-week-3-miami-dolphins-at-cleveland-browns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-predictions-week-3-miami-dolphins-at-cleveland-browns-17926\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Predictions Week 3: Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns
\nSunday, 9\/25\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cleveland -1
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Cleveland -2.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 41
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 41
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dolphins<\/a>
The Miami Dolphins are glad to be on the road this week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami is off to the dreaded 0-2 start and has failed to cover consecutive home games against the New England Patriots and Houston Texans.\u00a0 It seems that life on the road is much better for this team, especially considering its 6-2 mark of a year ago.\u00a0 In fact, the franchise is 15-9 away from Sun Life Stadium in the past three years under head coach Tony Sparano.\u00a0 That\u2019s the main reason why players are still directly behind their coaching staff heading into this weekend.\u00a0 \u201cWithout a doubt, man,\u201d commented Dolphins linebacker Karlos Dansby.\u00a0 \u201cThese guys are awesome.\u201d\u00a0 Miami is 16-18 ATS over the last two-plus seasons, but are 5-0 ATS as a road underdog of a field goal or less.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins have major problems on the defensive end, allowing a league-worst 483.5 yards per game.\u00a0 Many believe a lot of it is due to a shortened offseason and facing two of the more elite offenses in the league.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, quarterback Chad Henne needs to start being more consistent, as he threw for 416 yards in the opener, only to complete 12 of 30 passes for 170 yards with a touchdown and interception a week ago.\u00a0 Scoring in the red zone has been the focal point in this week\u2019s practices, as the team has come away with a touchdown just four of 10 times.<\/p>\n

Cleveland really feels that it should be 2-0 at this time, but the locker room is content with the team\u2019s first 1-1 start since the 2007 season.\u00a0 First-year head coach Pat Shurmur has made a good impression on the young team and everyone is starting to buy in.\u00a0 \u201cWe have plenty of room to improve,\u201d stated Browns tight end Alex Smith.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re a young team.\u201d\u00a0 Second-year quarterback Colt McCoy has taken over as the leader of the team, completing 22 of 32 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown in last week\u2019s 27-19 win over the Indianapolis Colts as one-point favorites.\u00a0 Cleveland is 16-17 ATS over the last two-plus campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Browns have one of the better running back tandems in the league, as Peyton Hillis continues to get a bulk of the carries, but Montario Hardesty is getting a chance to play in the fourth quarter.\u00a0 Hillis carried the ball 27 times in Indianapolis after getting the ball 17 times in the season opener.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, Cleveland defensive coordinator Dick Jauron is trying to improve a unit that allowed 350.1 yards a game a season ago.\u00a0 It\u2019s tough to say if it\u2019s working, as the first two opponents aren\u2019t exactly among the league\u2019s elite in terms of offense.<\/p>\n

Bettors will find that the Dolphins are 9-2 ATS as a road underdog, while the Browns are 0-5 ATS at home.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns Sunday, 9\/25\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Cleveland -1 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Cleveland -2.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 41 Current Total:\u00a0 41 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Miami is off to the dreaded 0-2 start and has failed to cover consecutive home games against the New England Patriots and Houston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[323,360,568,320,3329],"class_list":["post-17926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-chad-henne","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-colt-mccoy","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-peyton-hillis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17927,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926\/revisions\/17927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}