Things seem to be looking up for the Carolina Panthers and quarterback Bryce Young. One dominant defensive performance and two excellent offensives ones have given us more good football to start a season than we have seen in years. This week’s opponents, the Cleveland Browns, are a similarly long suffering team who may have a shot at relevancy this year. When I say similarly long suffering, I mean they are the fourth and third losingest teams in the NFL over the ten seasons prior to this one.
They
may not be the Jets, but the Browns have the reputation of a team you’re supposed to beat if you’re supposed to be any good at football. FanDuel agrees, holding the Panthers as -2.5 favorites over the Browns. That spread has held steady since odds opened a week ago.
Our staff are a little more bullish, predicting an average 10.6 point victory for the Panthers. That’s probably overkill, but it feels good to see people being positive again so we’re going to let it go for now.
Staff predictions for Week 3
Walker Clement
Panthers 31, Browns 24 – Devin Lloyd would have kept the Browns from scoring this much, but Young still proves to be in command of the better offense.
Jonathan DeLong
Panthers 31, Browns 14 – I kinda believe the Panthers are actually good, or at least good enough to handle teams that are supposed to be as bad as the Browns.
Brian Beversluis
Panthers 13, Browns 6 – Panthers win a defensive slugfest.
Daniel Belton
Panthers 24, Browns 13 – Bryce Young and the offense come back down to Earth a bit, but the defense holds against another subpar quarterback.
Eric Buchanan
Panthers 24, Browns 13 – With back-to-back road games where the opposing QB gets booed off the field, the Panthers score 14 points off turnovers to seal the win.
