The Pittsburgh Steelers will face a familiar and unpleasant foe in the New England Patriots this weekend, and even though the Steelers are at home, the Patriots are favored by as much as a field goal. Depending on which color shirt you wear, that's either outrageous or outrageously low. The Patriots have had a history of picking the Steelers apart, but maybe all those bad experiences will inspire the Steelers to come out and prove a point this weekend. But what do we know? Let's see how some other people across the Internet have picked this game.
First, the Sporting News, which picks the Patriots to win a shootout 38-34, meaning they would also cover.
Roethlisberger comes into the game sizzling, and for the Steelers to have a shot at beating Brady in a shootout, they must let him loose. The Patriots don't have the cornerbacks to handle all three of Pittsburgh’s young speedsters—Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. That should make for a fun, high-scoring game, but it's tough to go against a Bill Belichick-coached team coming off a bye.
Now the (potentially-biased) folks at NESN, who seem to think that the 2.5-point line is a joke.
I was really expecting an 8.5-point line for this one. That's partially due to the Patriots' bye week success, as mentioned earlier, partially due to the Patriots' dismantling of the Steelers last year, partially due to Gronkowski's three touchdowns in Pittsburgh last year and his motivation to shut everyone up about his porn star pictures this week, and partially due to the fact that I could not possibly feel any more foolish than if I picked Pittsburgh and then watched Brady pick apart that same defense he's been picking apart forever.
Nobody wants to take a chance on the team that is playing really well right now and gets three points at home? Seems like an interesting call to me, but then again, what do I know?