The Cleveland Browns will open their 2019-2020 regular season on Sunday at home against the Tennessee Titans. The opening kickoff from First Energy Stadium in downtown Cleveland is slated for 1:00 PM ET. The current NFL betting odds at 5Dimes shows Cleveland as a 5.5-point home favorite.

These teams last met in 2017 at Cleveland, and Tennessee walked away with a lackluster 12-9 win. That was a Browns team that ultimately finished the season with an abysmal 1-15 record.

Titans Shoot for 3 Straight Winning Seasons

Tennessee has finished with a 9-7 regular season record during each of the last 2 seasons. They qualified for the playoffs 2 years ago, and they even managed to upset Kansas City 22-21 in the Wild Card Round as a 9.0-point road underdog. They were eliminated the following week during a Divisional Round 35-14 loss at New England. The Titans failed to make the playoffs last season ago despite posting a winning record.

Recent History Suggests Fading Titans as Road Dog

Since the 2014 season began, Tennessee has gone 10-19 ATS (34.5%) as a road underdog. Additionally, beginning with games played on 12/1/2013, the Titans went 7-17 ATS (29.1%) as an away underdog of 3.5 or greater.

High Expectations for Browns

Considering Cleveland went just 7-8-1 last season, the bar has been set high for this year’s Browns. As a matter of fact, several major offshore sportsbooks have reported they would take the biggest loss on NFL Futures betting if Cleveland were to win the 2020 Super Bowl. Their offseason trade with the Giants to acquire superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. certainly swayed public betting in that regard. Even with their losing record last season, the Browns did manage to go a very respectable 5-2-1 at home.

Rare NFL Betting Angle

This game falls into an uncommon NFL betting situation. We have an opening game home favorite that had a losing record during the previous season, and they’re facing an opponent who captured a winning year.
Since 2001, any NFL home favorite playing in their season opener that had a losing record the previous year (Browns), and they’re facing an opponent who had a winning record the season prior (Titans), resulted in those home favorites going 12-2 ATS (83.3%).

The combination of the above betting angle, in addition to respecting oddsmakers uncanny abilities for setting accurate lines, greatly influenced my decision to make this game one of my NFL opening week picks.

Pick: Cleveland Browns -5.5

Ross Benjamin is a top sports analyst and one of the sports industry's most respected handicappers. Follow him on Twitter: @RossBenjamin1 or visit his website at RBWins.com