Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos Odds
The Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) will begin their quest for a second straight AFC championship when they visit the Denver Broncos (8-8) Sunday.
Odds makers expect the Steelers to take care of business, listing them as a nine-point favorite with the total set at 34.
Pittsburgh enters the postseason with plenty of momentum. Last week’s 13-9 win over the Cleveland Browns was its sixth victory in seven games.
Ben Roethlisberger connected on 23 of 40 pass attempts for 221 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions in the win. Six passes found the hands of Antonio Brown, who led the team with 90 receiving yards.
Isaac Redman led the way on the ground with 92 of the team’s 161 rushing yards and a score.
Talk of divine intervention started to creep up as Tim Tebow helped the Broncos win seven of his first eight starts this season. That talk has since quieted with the Broncos dropping their last three, including a 7-3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last week.
Tebow looked very human against the Chiefs, completing only 6 of 22 passes for 60 yards and an interception. Half of his completions went to Demaryius Thomas, who led the team with 34 receiving yards.
Willis McGahee led the ground attack with 145 of the team’s 216 rushing yards.
McGahee and company will likely need to put up big numbers on the ground to have a chance against the reigning AFC champs. The Broncos lead the NFL with 164.5 rushing yards per game, but the Steelers are the best defensive team in the league. The rank No. 1 in both total and scoring defense with 271.8 yards and 14.2 points allowed per contest.
While pulling off the upset will be no easy task, Denver should benefit from a couple of Pittsburgh’s bad breaks. The Steelers will be without safety Ryan Clark, who wasn’t cleared to play in Denver’s high altitude because of a sickle cell trait condition. They will also be without leading rusher Rashard Mendenhall, who has been placed on injured reserve after suffering a torn ACL against the Browns.
These two teams have split the last four in the series with the Steelers winning the most recent meeting 28-10 in Denver on Nov. 9, 2009.
The underdog has covered the spread in four of the last five matchups, and the Broncos are 5-1 against the number in their last 6 games in the underdog role. Still, it may be tough to go against the Steelers, who are 6-1 against the number in their last seven playoff games as a favorite.
In regard to the total, the over has been the play. These two have finished over the total in five of the last seven matchups.
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