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Green Bay Packers at Cleveland Browns

The Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns open up their 2011 preseason schedules Saturday night at Browns Stadium.  It will be the 23rd preseason meeting between the two teams and the Browns bring in a 12-10 advantage.

Green Bay brings back 21 of its 22 starts from last year’s Super Bowl winning team and head coach Mike McCarthy has led the offense to a top-10 ranking each of the past five seasons. 

Much of the recent success can be attributed to the special talents of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has thrown for 12,394 passing yards from 2008-10, which ranks No. 2 in league history behind only Kurt Warner for the most passing yards by a signal-caller in his first three seasons as a starter.

Saturday’s game also features a Packers’ defense that posted their best scoring defense mark since the Super Bowl champion team of 1996, as the unit allowed just 15.0 points a contest. 

The stop unit also accumulated 47 sacks, which was good for second among all NFL teams and the most for the franchise since 2001.

Don’t anticipate too much action from the starters Saturday, as McCarthy has always been a coach to preach being healthy for the regular season.  He has done a fantastic job of managing the squad in all situations, coming in with a 53-34 overall record.

The Packers were one of just four NFL teams to finish in the top 10 in both total offense and defense in 2010.  They will play all three of the other teams in 2010 (Saints, Chargers, Giants).

Cleveland will line it up against tonight’s foe for the third consecutive year to kick off the exhibition season, winning last year’s meeting 27-24 as a three-point road underdog. 

Second-year signal-caller Colt McCoy is now the starting quarterback in Cleveland and will be making the transition to a West Coast offense.  He had a successful campaign in many respects in 2010, including setting franchise records for completion percentage and quarterback rating as a rookie.

New head coach Pat Shurmur has stated that starters will expect to see a full quarter of action in the opening week and then give way to a second team that includes former Seattle quarterback Seneca Wallace. 

Running back Peyton Hillis will not sneak up on opposing teams this year, running for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns a year ago.  He reached those numbers despite playing just 13 games. 

Fans will be adoring his jerseys in great numbers after becoming the first franchise back in history to run for 1,000 yards, catch more than 50 passes and score more than 10 touchdowns in a single season.

Cleveland failed in two opportunities to cover the number as a home favorite last year, while Green Bay was 4-1 ATS as a road underdog.

At the time of this writing, Cleveland is a two-point favorite and the total stands at 35.5 Under (-115) at Skybook.