First NFL Saturday: Browns Vs. Raiders, Colts Vs. Patriots

• The Cleveland Browns are 3-point favorites over the Las Vegas Raiders.
• The Indianapolis Colts are favored to cover a 2-point spread over the Patriots with -115 odds.

INDIANAPOLIS – With the college football season now coming to an end, the NFL has now expanded to Saturday games with Week 15 being the first of the season. Starting off the first of two games are the Cleveland Browns as they host the Las Vegas Raiders. That is followed by the New England Patriots going on the road to take on the Indianapolis Colts.

Cleveland Browns Vs. Las Vegas Raiders

Even though NFL betting sites have the Browns favored to win here, signs are pointing towards the Raiders running away with this one. The Browns have been hit hard by COVID-19 and injuries recently, with several big name players on their injury list for all sorts of reasons.

These players include Kareem Hunt, Austin Hooper, Jarvis Landry, and Baker Mayfield. Also, Browns head coach, Kevin Stefanski tested positive for COVID and is in jeopardy of missing the game.

With all of those key players potentially missing this game, it explains the shift as the Browns odds opened up as a 5-point favorite and have since shifted down to 3 points.

With that, even with all of the COVID cases surrounding the Browns, the Raiders odds are still on the longer side offering $140 in profit on a $100 bet.

Both teams have been horrendous against the spread this season each with a 5-8 record. However, the Browns are on a four-game losing streak against the spread while the Raiders have been able to cover once in their last three games.

Indianapolis Colts Vs. New England Patriots

The second of the two-game slate is seeing the New England Patriots in a rare underdog scenario. However, they should not be counted out at all as they have won seven straight games and have covered the spread in each of those games.

As an away team this season, the Patriots have done a great job against the spread with a 5-1 record and are covering by a 9.1-point margin. They are also 2-0 as an away team underdog this season covering that spread by 6.8 points on average.

As for the Indianapolis Colts, they have also done solid against the spread with an 8-4 record, but when playing at home they have not lived up to the hype going 3-4 against the spread. Also, in their last six games, they haven’t been able to get anything going in one direction as they have gone 3-3 ATS.

The public is also leaning on the Patriots streak to continue as they are taking in 77% of the total bets and 69% of the betting handle.