Tips and odds for the 3rd week of the NFL

After a double-digit home loss to the Cowboys, Cleveland rebounded with a narrow away win against the Trevor Lawrence-led Jaguars.

Now the injury-plagued Browns will host the Giants, who narrowly managed to win away against Washington last week.

Will Cleveland continue to buy time while impatiently awaiting the return of its star running back Nick Chubb, or will the Giants unexpectedly deliver a strong enough performance to beat the Browns on the road?

The game between the Giants and Commanders last week was strange.

Washington scored 21 points, all of which came on seven field goals.

New York, on the other hand, scored 18 points thanks to three touchdowns, but Graham Gano's injury forced the Giants to get creative.

First, they used punter Jamie Gillan to try and score an extra point. He missed it.

The Giants then attempted the 2-point conversion on the next two touchdowns, but failed both times.

On one hand, it was promising to see the Giants gain some offensive momentum with Daniel Jones at quarterback while also making numerous consecutive stops on defense in the red zone.

Yet they allowed the Commanders, a team with a rookie quarterback and limited pass-receiving options, a ridiculous 425 yards of offense.

Meanwhile, Cleveland made up for a home loss to Dallas in Week 1 with a road win last week against a Jacksonville team that had plenty of talent on both sides of the ball.

Deshaun Watson didn't deliver anything spectacular in Week 2, but he made a passable impression, completing around 65 percent of his passes for 186 yards.

This was a step forward for the Browns' offensive unit.

Unfortunately, they were only successful on 2 of 14 third-down attempts. Yuck.

It's hard to imagine a way a struggling Jones and his terrible offensive line – aside from Andrew Thomas' outstanding play at left tackle – could score against the Browns.

Cleveland's defense has fallen short of expectations so far this season, but most of the team's problems have been due to offensive turnovers and poor starting position.

Regardless, there's no better time to get going than against a Giants offense that ranked 30th in offensive DVOA (FTN) and team run block grade in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus, and dead last in team pass block grade.

Betting on the NFL?

Given the Browns' consistent struggles on third downs over the first two weeks (ranking 31st in third down conversion rate), it's almost as hard to imagine them having much success against a Giants team that has at least performed well defensively in the red zone (ranking 4th in opponent scoring rate in the red zone).

This will be a tough game and neither team will have much success on offense.

Therefore, the under at 38.5 has some value despite a low total.

Recommendation: Under 38.5 (-108, DraftKings).