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Steelers vs. Browns odds 2012: Steelers only slight favorites

The Steelers are only about one-point favorites against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. That's a unique position for the Steelers, who customarily are a much better team than the Browns, but the Browns have home-field advantage, and more importantly, the Steelers are down two quarterbacks. After the injuries of Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich, the Steelers will send out 37-year-old Charlie Batch. (The newly-acquired Brian Hoyer will back him up.)

Still, the line might be a bit ungenerous to the Steelers -- even giving them a bit of credit for a couple close losses this year, the Browns are a 2-8 team, and much of the Steelers' strong defense is intact. We'll see how Batch performs -- the fact that the Steelers kept turning last week to Leftwich, who appeared to be injured while under-throwing his targets, may say something about what the Steelers think of Batch. But Batch was reasonably effective when pressed into duty last season.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.