It should have been a lot easier.
Last Sunday, the New Orleans were trying to end a seven-game losing streak against a division opponent who had a more than two game lead in their NFC South race. The Saints were underdogs to the visiting Atlanta Falcons, and New Orleans had fired their coach at the beginning of the week and were in line to get a boost from the dismissal of Dennis Allen and hiring of player friendly Darren Rizzi.
As a home underdog in this spot, I thought we had one of the best propositions of the season, and we designated it as such by making it the Week 10 Top Pick.
Should have been easy as an underdog on the point spread.
It wasn’t.
Yeah, the Saints won, like we expected, but it required the Falcons to miss three field goals, throw an ill-advised interception late in the game, and pretty much do their impression of the Carolina Panthers. The final score was 20-17 in favor of the home standing Saints.
Good, we won. But what did that game offer us in lessons to take to the following week?
The Saints are not good. They still have injuries on both sides of the ball and quarterback Derek Carr gives them hope, but I don’t bet on hope.
This week, the Saints are again at home and facing a squad that will start one of their former quarterbacks with a Cleveland Browns team that has had two weeks to prepare for this encounter. Cleveland had their bye last week. The Browns are preparing for a team that won last Sunday. We are looking at a team that was in a perfect spot then, barely survived, and now go into this week’s game no longer getting multiple points on the spread.
Cleveland is no great shakes.
Their season opened with a lopsided home defeat against the Dallas Cowboys and went downhill from there. The quarterback they backed the brinks truck up to bring to Cleveland, Deshaun Watson, has been as big of a disappointment in Cleveland as Ryan Leaf was in San Diego 26 years ago.
Watson was once the savior in Houston, taking the Texans from the bottom to the playoffs. He seemed to have all the tickets to be a winning franchise quarterback, but his off-field indiscretions seem to indicate a character flaw that spilled out on the team he was entrusted to lead.
In today’s NFL, character from the quarterback position is as important as a strong arm. They are the focal point of a billion-dollar industry in the cities they represent in their team’s uniform. High character guys succeed, men like Peyton Manning, John Elway, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Brock Purdy.
Low character guys with huge physical upsides fail like they were never meant to succeed. That list includes men like JaMarcus Russell and others I wish not to name. But I will add Watson to the list of men who do not have the ability to rally teammates to consistent success.
In New Orleans today, the Browns will be led by a quarterback that spent four seasons primarily as a backup with the Saints, Jameis Winston. He had ten starts during his years in New Orleans and compiled a winning 6 and 4 record. Winston is in his first season with the Browns and entered the league as the first overall selection in the 2015 National Football League draft.
The QB out of Florida State has not failed to match high expectations after being drafted first because of any character flaws. In fact, he is universally liked and his lack of becoming a proven franchise quarterback has to be attributed to something other than character.
Still, in the right spot, on the right day, he is good enough to beat any opponent, like he did against the Baltimore Ravens three weeks ago.
I suggest we have a lot of “rights” aligned this week in the Big Easy. Maybe, this one will be easy … for the visitors.
Qoxhi Picks: Cleveland Browns (-1) over New Orleans Saints