By Greg Dempson
Pinnacle Odds: New York Giants at Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh is off a Thursday game vs. the Colts, winning (28–07,) so they’re playing with extra rest when they host the Giants in this 4:25 ET start. The Giants played at Cleveland last week and now they’re playing the second of back-to-back games before hosting the red hot Dallas Cowboys.
Is this a look ahead game for “Big Blue?” The Giants’ last “true” road loss was October 9th at Green Bay, (23–16,) resulting in a points spread push or loss, depending on your line. Since that contest at Green Bay, the Giants have “Packed” their road gear but once, (at London on October 23,) as they’ve played four home games.
New York’s streak of six straight up wins is not all that impressive when you review the current standings of the teams they defeated. They hosted the Ravens, played the Rams in London, and then were at home to the Eagles, Bengals, Bears before traveling to Cleveland to play the Browns last week.
Only one of those six teams are .500 or better at this juncture of the season, the Ravens… although the Eagles were above .500 when they played at New York.
As mentioned, the Steelers just defeated the Colts, (without Luck,) as well as the Browns the week before. In their last two home contests they were without Roethlisberger in a loss vs. the Patriots, so I’ll give them a mulligan in that game and with “Big Ben” back under center they lost when hosting the Cowboys. Pittsburgh is currently on a 2–4 straight up run!
View From the 50 Yard Line
· The Giants’ defensive unit has only allowed 10 touchdowns while grabbing 10 interceptions and 25 sacks.
· New York does not have a running game but I note the Steelers are allowing 64.3% pass completions and the Giants have three go to receivers, Beckham, Cruz and Shepard. The latter didn’t get any catches last week but I do believe he’ll be in the mix this week.
· The Giants have issues on their offensive line but Manning gets the ball out quickly, they are the second fastest team in the league.
· In the second half of the season the Steelers are 04–13 ATS in home games versus good rushing defenses that allow 90 or less rushing yards per game.
· The Giants are 39–21 ATS in road games versus good offensive teams that average 350 or more rushing yards per game.
All Systems Go
· After covering the spread in two out of their last three games, play on road underdogs of 3.5 to 10 points that are winning between 60% to 75% of their games when playing a team with a winning record. This system is 32–11 = 74% ATS the past 10 seasons.
Last week in Review
· My selection on the Browns and Giants under 44.5 was a winner. My Every Edge NFL record is 3–0 ATS in the preseason and 8–4–1 ATS in the regular season, 11–04–01 overall.