November 28, 2018
For the second time this season, the Jimmy Garoppolo-less San Francisco 49ers have been booted from the Sunday night game, this time against Seattle. In its place is a much more important matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers from Heinz Field. So who do the Chargers vs Steelers odds favor?
The game could certainly be a playoff preview as it would be an upset if the Steelers don’t win the AFC North for a third straight season. The Chargers trail the Kansas City Chiefs by a game in the AFC West but still have one game left with Kansas City. More likely, the Bolts will have to go the wild-card route, and this writer believes they do make it that way.
It’s the first meeting between Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger. Both are first-round picks in the 2004 NFL Draft (along with Eli Manning). Since 2015, the duo have also been likely Hall of Famers. However, Rivers has gotten the best of Big Ben just twice.
The Chargers vs Steelers odds have Pittsburgh a 3.5-point favorite and our against the spread pick. The total is 51.5.
Frankly, cold-weather teams who play outdoors generally have a major advantage at home against warm-weather clubs this time of year. Similarly, it looks like the weather could be a factor on Sunday night in Pittsburgh to the Steelers’ benefit.
Pittsburgh hasn’t lost back-to-back games yet this year. The team also comes off a 24-17 loss in Denver that snapped the team’s six-game winning streak. That was a bit of a fluke in that the Steelers outgained the Broncos 527-308. Nevertheless, Pittsburgh gave it away four times. This includes Roethlisberger throwing a horrible interception at the Denver two-yard line with just over a minute left – and the Broncos none. Roethlisberger has much better career home splits than on the road.
The Chargers catch a minor break with this being flexed, because otherwise it would have been a 10 a.m. Pacific time kickoff. Then again, starting at 8:20 p.m. ET just means it will be colder than it would have been in the afternoon.
Los Angeles destroyed Arizona on Sunday but it was costly as star running back Melvin Gordon suffered an MCL injury that will cost him at least this week’s game and probably more. He has rushed for 802 yards and nine scores this year while catching 44 passes for 453 yards and four more TDs. Big loss. That puts more of a burden on Rivers, who had the game of his life against the Cardinals in completing his first 25 passes (NFL record) and finishing 28 of 29 (96.6 percent also a record) for three scores.
The NFL odds show no movement on the spread, but the total has dropped from an open as high as 56. This is no doubt because of Gordon.