Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers Betting Preview
Opening Line: Steelers -3
Total Odds: 36.5
Time: 4:30 PM EST Saturday January 15, 2011 on NBC
It’s round 3 of the Pittsburgh vs. Ravens AFC North rivalry this season with each team winning away from home. Both teams went 12-4 on the season, but the Steelers won the tiebreaker so they had a week off last week while the Ravens killed the Kansas City Chiefs 30-7. Both teams have great defenses, which is why the O/U is a low 36.5, but the team that can make the big play on offense will likely win this game.
This season the Ravens are 9-7-1 ATS, and they covered last week, and the Steelers are 10-6 ATS. While the Ravens are only 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games against the Steelers the road team and underdog are both 3-0-1 ATS in the last 4 games between these AFC North rivals.
In both games between these teams this season the total went Under both times.
The Ravens played great on both sides of the ball in their win over the Chiefs last week racking up 30 points and 390 yards (248 passing 142 rushing) and their D held Kansas City to only 161 total yards. On top of that the Ravens’ D forced 5 turnovers. Pittsburgh is led by their rushing offense and they will be facing the strength of the Baltimore defense, which is defending the run. Neither team rushed for over 55 yards in Pittsburgh’s Week 13 win, but the Steelers will look to establish the run early.
Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh passing offense will be facing a Ravens’ pass defense that ranks 21st in the league, so if he can make a big play or 2 down field Pittsburgh has a big advantage.
Baltimore LB Ray Lewis sacked Matt Cassel 3 times last week and the Pittsburgh offensive line has to protect their QB and keep him off his butt.
Joe Flacco had a good game against KC and he may be counted on for the offense this Saturday. Ray Rice had over 1,200 rushing yards this season, but in the 2 games against Pittsburgh he only combined for 52 rushing yards. Pittsburgh’s pass’ defense struggled in the first half of the season, but played much better in the 2nd half. Their secondary cannot allow the Baltimore RB duo of Anquan Boldin and Derrick Mason make the big play and Flacco has to keep the ball away from Pittsburgh S Troy Polamalu.
Since this game will probably be a low scoring defensive battle turnovers are crucial.
In some other betting trends for this AFC playoff game:
Baltimore is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road games, 8-3-2 ATS in their last 13 games as an underdog of 0.5-3, and has an Under record of 4-1 in their last 5 games as an underdog.
Pittsburgh is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games, 4-0 ATS in their last 4 playoff home games, and has an Under record of 5-2 in their last 7 games.
Our Selection : The Steelers played 6 games against playoff bound teams this season winning only two of the four games. Yes one victory was over the Ravens, but they were outplayed in the game and needed a huge play by T. Polamalu to pull the game out late.
The road team did win both matches this season and the last 4 in this series were decided by 3 points. We're going to side with a team that can win this game getting points.
Take the Ravens +3.5 at 5Dimes.com.