Sunday Night Football has given fans and bettors some pretty good games so far this year, and this week's edition should be more of the same as the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots battle at Heinz Field in what could be a preview of this season's AFC Championship.
BetJamaica.com opened Pittsburgh at -4.5 for this game, with the OVER/UNDER at 45. The Steelers then got bumped to -5, but as of Friday morning they'd been reinstated at -4.5.
Pittsburgh is also listed at -220 on the
BetJamaica.com NFL betting moneyline, with New England getting +180 to win the game outright.
The Patriots opened this year with a win over Cincinnati, then lost at the Jets, then won five straight to get to 6-1. But New England ran into a buzzsaw last week and got clobbered at Cleveland 34-14, allowing the Browns to run for 230 yards. So the Pats enter this weekend tied with the Jets atop the AFC East at 6-2.
The Steelers opened this season with three straight wins without QB Ben Roethlisberger. A home loss to Baltimore was then followed by two more wins, before Pittsburgh lost at New Orleans. And Monday night the Steelers picked up a divisional victory, holding off the Bengals in Cincy 27-21.
So Pittsburgh, at 6-2, is a half-game up on second-place Baltimore in the AFC North.
And with both the Steelers and Patriots winning six of their first eight games, Sunday night's affair could go a long way toward deciding home-field advantage in the upcoming AFC playoffs.
Statistically speaking, New England is getting outgained this season by a 387-324 YPG margin, and outrushed 118-107. Also, since trading WR Randy Moss, the Patriots are averaging 22 PPG.
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is outgaining opponents this season by two YPG, 300-298. But the Steelers are outrushing foes 118-58. And that 58 rushing yards allowed per game leads the league by a considerable margin.
Also, while Pittsburgh is averaging 30:23 on time-of-possession this year, New England is only holding the ball for 27:35 per game.
The Patriots have played six OVER games this season and two UNDER games, as their contests have averaged a healthy 51 PPG.
The Steelers are 4-4 on the totals, as their games have averaged 37 points.
On the injury front Pittsburgh is banged up along the O line. On the other sidelines New England placed K Stephen Gostkowski on IR this week, replacing him with Shayne Graham.
These two teams last met two seasons ago, when the Steelers went up to Foxboro and pounded the Tom Brady-less Pats 33-10.