Patriots @ Steelers tips, picks and prop bets: Offensive disaster class points towards easy under
- George Dempsey
- 6 December 2023
The Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5) will look to increase their playoff prospects against the struggling New England Patriots (2-10) at Acrisure Stadium.
If the paint has finished drying and you have severe insomnia, you could probably cure it by tuning in to Thursday Night Football.
Bill Belichick's New England Patriots have been out of the playoff picture for some time. At 2-10, there’s nothing other than pride on the line, although first pick in the NFL draft may be their aim.
They’ll have to go some to match the 1-11 Panthers come season’s end but whatever their intention, they will lose to the 7-5 Pittsburgh Steelers.
Mike Tomlin’s side are not a vintage watch but they are second in the AFC North and holding on to the fifth of seven playoff spots in the AFC.
To their credit, only five teams are allowing fewer points (19ppg) in the entire NFL, but scoring just 16 points per game has presented its challenges.
The total opened at 35 points, which is positively ludicrous by the way, and has since dropped to 30. That may still be too high.
Not only are the Steelers struggling to score but keeping it tight at the other end, the Patriots’ offence has just gone home early.
Their last three losses have been 0-6, 7-10 and 6-10. Their loss to the Chargers was the lowest-scoring game since the Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins 3-0 in 2007.
Whether or not the Steelers are a classic watch doesn’t come into it. They cannot afford to blow this game in the hunt for the playoffs.
We can’t risk trusting either of these teams on the spread, as the Steelers could win and not cover, but under 30 points looks pretty likely.
Patriots @ Steelers prop bets
Mitch Trubisky has made just two starts and his best effort was 138 yards on 15 of 27 passing attempts in a 20-10 loss.
Prop: Mitch Trubisky under 183.5 passing yards
Bailey Zappe has been used in five Patriots games this season but our best glimpse of him was the 0-6 loss. So, yeah. 141 yards people.
Prop: Bailey Zappe under 161.5 passing yards
For our third and final prop, we’re going to target a bigger price. These teams are far better on defence than offence. Between them, they average 3.5 field goal attempts per game.
