Steelers -3 vs Chargers — 1.5 unit
Sunday Night Football
The Steelers are back in a spot where they’ve had a ton of success the last few years – at home off a loss and in primetime. They should have beaten Denver last week on the road after putting up 527 yards on Denver’s defense (outgaining them by 219 yards) but they coughed the ball up 4 times.
The Chargers are a very good team despite the knock that they haven’t beaten anybody. Can you blame them for having a weak schedule the last 2 months? This isn’t a play based on the Chargers’ success being a mirage because they’re a very deep team but it’s hard to pass up on Pittsburgh being 14-1 SU their last 15 primetime games and 15-6 ATS off a loss since 2014. Roethlisberger is 22-4 SU at home in
primetime and the last time the Chargers went on the road in primetime when they were playing well they got their asses kicked at Kansas City in Week 15 last year. This won’t be a beatdown like that, but the Steelers should come away with the win.
Roethlisberger calling out Antonio Brown for a bad route last week seems like a veteran QB knowing what he’s doing to motivate his guys – the Steelers have gotten complacent a bunch of times the last few years when things were going well and Big Ben might be just tightening the screws on his team a little bit. Antonio Brown responded to the critics by calling Ben “my guy” and assuring there were no hard feelings. This is a team that responds well after a loss and not so well after success.
Melvin Gordon is out but Austin Ekeler has been great all year with 5.8 ypc and he plays the old Danny Woodhead role for Rivers. This shouldn’t affect the Chargers too much.
Where the Steelers can and should win is in the run game and the middle of the field – LA getting Bosa back is big but they just lost MLB Denzel Perryman and DT Corey Liuget in the last few weeks and have yet to play an offense like the Steelers since. James Conner should have his opportunities tonight and Pittsburgh should clean up their mistakes from the last two weeks.
Pittsburgh is 20-3 SU in December since 2013 and the home team is on a 36-25-1 ATS run on Sunday Night Football.
