Patriots-Browns Week 8 Predictions: Will Defense Stay Hot Against Baker Mayfield?
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's a short week for the Patriots, which generally makes life a bit more difficult. But that one extra day of rest and preparation isn't scaring off our team of expert prognosticators.
The Cleveland Browns are coming in off their bye, but with a 2-4 record, a rookie head coach, and a second-year QB, they don't look to be the most imposing threat to the Patriots this weekend.
Here's how our team sees things playing out come Sunday afternoon at Gillette.
Steve Burton, WBZ-TV Sports
This has been a crazy week for the Patriots -- and a short one -- with a lot of moving parts. The one constant? They keep on winning. The defense just may go down as the best ever in the National Football League. And if Sam Darnold was seeing ghosts last week, what's Baker Mayfield going to be looking at?
Josh Gordon and Michael Bennett are gone. Mohamed Sanu has arrived, and look for him to fit right in.
The Pats are better than 12-point favorites, but Cleveland does have talent.
Patriots 31, Browns 14
Dan Roche, WBZ-TV Sports
This one sets up nicely for the Patriots' defense to continue their crazy start. Pats will do enough on offense to make it 8-0 on the season.
Patriots 31, Browns 10
Levan Reid, WBZ-TV Sports
So at the beginning of the season, this looked like it could be a great game and it still might be ... but the Browns are not as good as maybe many thought.
This will be a great test for the Patriots' defense, because the Cleveland offense has stars ... but then they also have Baker Mayfield, and he's been playing like hot garbage. As long as the Patriots keep running up against first- and second-year quarterbacks, these games will go in the New England direction. The defense is too good and the Pats' offense is doing their job. They are engineering long drives and making few mistakes.
Pats beat the Browns, and Bill Belichick gets his 300th win against the first team he was a head coach for.
Patriots 31, Browns 10
Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
Last week, I picked the Patriots to lose. That was stupid. I'm never doing that again.
Patriots 100, Browns 0
Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
Baker Mayfield may complete more passes to the Patriots than his own teammates.
Patriots 28, Browns 13
WBZ-TV gets you ready for Patriots-Browns with Patriots GameDay at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Kickoff will be on WBZ-TV at 4:25 p.m., and switch over to TV38 after the game for Patriots 5th Quarter!