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The spread on the Monday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Bucs was coming in at -1 Steelers on the road despite their poor play and Tampa Bay's hot 2-0 start, including a victory versus the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles last week.
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It's Not All Bad in Steeler Land
Ben Roethlisberger enjoyed 452 passing yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions last week after a disastrous Week 1 outing. Jesse James had a career-high 138 receiving yards, and JuJu Smith-Schuster had a career-high 13 receptions.
Ryan Fitzpatrick on Fire
Ryan Fitzpatrick is averaging 13.4 yards per attempt, which was 2.85 more than the next-highest passer (Patrick Mahomes) as of last week.
Preview and Prediction for Steelers vs. Buccaneers
From AthlonSports.com:
The high level of play from Tampa Bay’s offense must come to an end eventually, right? Sure, but it may not be this week after seeing the struggles from Pittsburgh’s defense to start the season. The good news is the Steelers will welcome cornerback Joe Haden back into the starting lineup after he missed last week’s game due to a hamstring injury.
Another factor that could play a significant factor in this game is Ben Roethlisberger’s struggles on the road. The team can’t afford to put him in a position where he has to win a shootout away from Heinz Field. Roethlisberger did well with his 60 pass attempts last week (452 yards and three touchdowns), but will he see similar results on the road? That’s doubtful.
Expecting 79 combined points like last week would be foolish, but the over (54 points) still looks appealing. If Fitzpatrick can continue to play at an MVP-caliber level, Tampa Bay should do enough to pull out a close home victory.
Prediction: Buccaneers 31, Steelers 27
Ratings
Monday Night Football games have seen low ratings, mostly a result of matchups that folks aren't really interested in watching. This Monday is an exception. The Steelers are a primetime team no matter how disappointing they play and this Monday everyone is looking to see if Ryan Fitzpatrick can maintain his hot play and lead his Bucs to 3-0 before Jameis Winston is set to return from suspension next week.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
