{"id":19087,"date":"2011-11-03T18:50:21","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T23:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=19087"},"modified":"2011-11-03T18:50:21","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T23:50:21","slug":"nfl-week-9-predictions-cleveland-browns-vs-houston-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-9-predictions-cleveland-browns-vs-houston-texans-19087\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 9 Predictions: Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans
\nSunday, 11\/6\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -10.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -11
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 41
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 41
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Cleveland Browns running game desperately needs Peyton Hillis back on the field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cleveland has scored just 16 combined points the last two weeks and is coming off a 20-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers as nine-point road underdogs.\u00a0 The Browns have been hampered by the inability to run the football and star runner Peyton Hillis is still listed as day-to-day with a hamstring injury.\u00a0 \u201cWe like to think we can still run the football,\u201d commented Browns first-year head coach Pat Shurmur stated.\u00a0 \u201cWhoever is running the ball, whoever is lining up at tailback, will have that opportunity.\u201d\u00a0 Cleveland is 9-9 ATS on the road and the \u2018under\u2019 is 11-8 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Browns only came way with one victory in four October games, which is surprising due to their defensive performance, holding opponents to 19.9 points and 286.5 yards per game.\u00a0 Second-year quarterback Colt McCoy will be standing under center for the 16th time as a starter this week, coming in with a 5-10 record, which is actually more losses than he was handed the entire time he was in Austin and playing for the Texas Longhorns.<\/p>\n

Houston bounced back nicely after consecutive losses to the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Ravens, entering into this Week 9 affair on a two-game winning streak.\u00a0 The Texans out-gained the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars by a combined 554 yards in those victories.\u00a0 The biggest difference about the team from year\u2019s past is definitely a defense that is allowing just 18.1 points and 286.8 yards per game.\u00a0 \u201cI do have a ton of confidence right now in the way we\u2019re playing defensively,\u201d commented Texans head coach Gary Kubiak.\u00a0 Houston is 16-21 ATS over the last two-plus seasons and the \u2018under\u2019 is 21-18 in that span.<\/p>\n

The Texans stop unit has made the improvement due to the direction of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, ranking third in total defense, including sixth versus the run and fifth against the pass.\u00a0 Houston\u2019s success is definitely not a fluke at this point, facing five teams already that possess winning record, with four more on the way.\u00a0 On the offensive side, quarterback Matt Schaub and running back Arian Foster have done a great job in racking up yardage, while the team awaits the return of wide receiver Andrew Johnson.\u00a0 The former Miami Hurricanes star may miss Sunday\u2019s game with a continual hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Browns due to their 4-1 ATS mark as a underdog of 10.5 or more points, while the Texans have never covered a double-digit spread.<\/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":"

Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans Sunday, 11\/6\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -10.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -11 Opening Total:\u00a0 41 Current Total:\u00a0 41 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Cleveland has scored just 16 combined points the last two weeks and is coming off a 20-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":17252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[5456,360,568,1120,452,3329],"class_list":["post-19087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-arian-foster","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-colt-mccoy","tag-houston-texans","tag-matt-schaub","tag-peyton-hillis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087","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=19087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19089,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions\/19089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}