Titans
vs.
Steelers
Week 11
NFL Pick
11/16/17
By: Jason Green
Tennessee Titans (6-3 SU 3-5-1 ATS) vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (7-2 SU 5-4 ATS)
The Titans are hot winners of Four in a row, but they head north to Pittsburgh where they are over a TD underdog facing the 7-2 Steelers. In their Four-Game win streak all the teams they have faced are under .500 and while they were pretty dominant in their last Game they still only won by Four points. Still, it was a win and Tennessee does rank a legit 13th in the league in ppg while only ranking 22nd in points against per Game.
The Titans are tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars atop the AFC South.
At 5 dimes sportsbook the Steelers are 7.5-point favorites with a total of 44.
The Steelers have also won Four in a row, but in that span they have beaten the Chiefs and Lions and both of those solid wins were on the road. Unlike the last few seasons Pittsburgh has been led by their defense this season and that unit ranks 2nd in the league only giving up an average of 16.4 ppg.
These teams have not met since the 2014 season.
Not only have the Titans covered in five of their last seven Games facing the Steelers, but the underdog has covered the spread in six of the last seven meetings between these AFC teams.
In their last Game the Titans beat the Bengals 24-20 to give them their best start since the 2008 season. While Tennessee only won by Four points they out-GAined CiNCy 416 yards to 308 yards, they dominated time of possession (40.09 to 19:51), and they rushed for 180 yards while holding the Bengals to only 53 yards on the ground. Marcus Mariota passed for 264 yards with a TD and an INT and three players had at least 48 receiving yards led by Delanie Walker with 63 yards. Mariota, Derick Henry, and DeMarco Murray combined for 144 rushing yards and they will be facing a Pittsburgh run D that ranks 11th in the league.
The Steelers’ D has been stronger against the pass (ranking 2nd) than the run and if they can stop the run in this Game they will be in great shape.
In their last Game the Steelers were not very impressive in beating a 3-win Colts team needing a late FG to win the Game. Pittsburgh played good D in the Game holding Indy to only 267 yards and they only GAve up 71 rushing yards, but they only had 316 total yards and 88 yards on the ground. Ben Roethlisberger passed for 236 yards with 2 TD and 1 INT and JuJu Smith-SChuster led the team with 97 receiving yards and star Antonio Brown, who leads the NFL in receiving yards, had 47 receiving yards. Le’Veon Bell rushed for 81 yards, but only averaged 3.1 yards per carry and after racking up a total of 313 rushing yards in two straight Games he has only rushed for 156 total yards in his last two Games failing to average over 3.1 yards per carry in either Game.
While the Titans rank a solid 6th in the league defending the run they only rank 19th defending the pass.
The Titans are 7-20 ATS in their last 27 road Games, 0-3-1 ATS in their last 4 Games in November, and in their last 8 Games they have an Over record of 6-2.
The Steelers are 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 home Games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 Games against a team with a winning record, and in their last 6 Games against a team with a winning record they have an Under record of 5-1.
Jason’s Pick: Well, one of these teams will have their Four-Game win streak snapped in this Thursday night match up and that team is the Titans. They are a good team, but the Steelers are on the verge of being a great one that has Super Bowl aspirations. Pittsburgh will get it done in their house and while a blowout is not in the cards they will still win and cover the spread.