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Ready for another ugly Thursday Night Football matchup?
Neither the Pittsburgh Steelers nor the Tennessee Titans have wowed any bettors yet this season, but both teams are in fairly desperate need of a win heading into their primetime meeting. The Steelers opened and are still 6-point favorites despite a whopping 82 percent of the public siding with them.
What follows is a breakdown of the point spread for the game, with news, notes, quotes and anecdotes to help you make your bets.
Keep in mind: The “edge” is merely a suggestion, and not something we necessarily recommend playing.
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STEELERS AT TITANS, 8:20 P.M. ET
OPENING POINT SPREAD: Pittsburgh -6 | CURRENT: Pittsburgh -6 | OVER/UNDER: 43.5 | TV: NFL
Chris Johnson has topped 24 rushing yards just once in five games, and it won’t be easy against Pittsburgh’s defense.
SUMMARY: This spread opened at 6 and almost immediately dropped, even going as low as 4.5 at some books, before getting bet back up to the original number. These two teams are a combined 2-7 against the spread, and neither has looked like what we expected before the season. Tennessee has been wiped off the field in four of five games, while Pittsburgh needed a last-second field goal to pull out a sloppy home win against Philadelphia and get to .500.
STORYLINES: The Titans have scored more than 14 points only once all season, and that came in a Week 3 victory over Detroit where they had three combined touchdowns off specials teams and defense.
The offense has become completely stale, as Chris Johnson hasn’t scored all season and is averaging 2.9 yards per carry, topping 24 yards just once in five games. Tennessee ranks 27th in the NFL in scoring (17.4), 30th in rushing (65.4) and 25th in yards per play (5.2).
Jake Locker will sit out again with an injured non-throwing shoulder, leaving Matt Hasselbeck—who averaged just 4.7 yards per attempt in a 30-7 loss at Minnesota—under center.
The Pittsburgh defense is great in name but hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations yet this season, and lynchpin safety Troy Polamalu is out with a calf injury.
EDGE: With so little time for offenses to prepare for these Thursday Night Football matchups, there’s generally a lean to both the underdog and the under. We’re scared to death to back the Titans when they’ve shown zero ability to even keep games close, so we’ll give a small edge to the under in this matchup.
