Oracle's Monday Night Week 9

[Oracle]

YTD: 10-5 / +15.60 units

Monday Night Football

Denver +3 -110 (BoDog)

Write up coming later and a possible play on the total.

[Oracle]

Pittsburgh at Denver

I have this one lined at Denver -4. A big difference of the +3 for the Broncos that the books are handing out.

The Broncos are 6-1 including wins against Cincinnati, Dallas, New England, and San Diego. The Broncos are at home where they are undefeated and are getting slapped in the face being made an underdog. If that is not enough motivation they are playing the defending champions whom they've owned recently and they are looking to make amends for the humiliating loss to Baltimore last week.

On the other side the Steelers are badly beat up defensively. They will be without DE Aaron Smith and his backup Travis Kirschke, LB Lawrence Timmons, and FS Ryan Clark. The defensive line will be patched together with back up Nick Eason, who was released a few weeks ago and now returns to start moving from the right side to the left, and rookie Ziggy Hood. The Steelers also travel to one of the hardest fields in the NFL to play after only beating the lowly Lions on the road this season. Another issue could be the Steelers looking ahead to a major showdown with the Bengals next week.

Both teams have played basically the same strength of schedule but the Steelers have only two quality wins while Denver has four. Both of Pittsburgh's wins came at home and their win over Minnesota came in the fourth quarter by virtue of two defensive touchdowns. They lost 2 of 3 on the road this year to Cincinnati and Chicago. The Broncos are undefeated at home with two of those wins being against high caliber opponents in New England and Dallas.

Look for the Broncos to have constant pressure on Roethlisberger and to get at least one touchdown from either their defense or the always dangerous Eddie Royal returning kicks against a Pittsburgh special teams unit that has been horrid recently.

I love the Broncos plus the points and could see them very easily winning this game outright.

[maddoggie]

....good luck....with ya tonight....



~md

[Oracle]

Thanks Maddog. Hate betting against my home team but I think there is to much value here to pass up.

[maddoggie]

Broncos already beat my home team this year -- think they will be really tough on MNF at home...

~md

[Oracle]

I'm guessing you're a Pats fan, right? Yeah, it's hard to play in Denver anytime and coming off a loss, as a dog, against the champs I can't see them not playing one of their best games of the season. Can't see the Steelers taking advantage of the loss of Harris with that patchwork defensive line. The X factor here is Dumervil against the Steelers average at best OLine and Eddie Royal who will give the Broncos good field position, if not a touchdown, returning kicks. Steelers have given up 3 special teams touchdowns in their last four games.

[Oracle]

Should've been a homer in this one. The Steelers have dominated Denver in the second half and Orton looks like the guy that was in Chicago. Horrible play tonight.