{"id":10128,"date":"2010-10-31T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T19:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10128"},"modified":"2010-10-31T02:49:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-31T07:49:42","slug":"sunday-night-football-picks-saints-vs-steelers-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/sunday-night-football-picks-saints-vs-steelers-predictions-10128\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Night Football Picks: Saints Vs Steelers Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA
\nSunday, October 31, 2010, 8:20 pm EST, TV: NBC
\nOpening Line: Saints Pick’em
\nCurrent Line: Saints -1
\nOpening Total: 43
\nCurrent Total: 44
\nMoney Line: Saints -120 \/ Steelers +100<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Saints
New Orleans QB Drew Brees will try to bounce back from his worst performance of the season against a suspect Pittsburgh secondary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers (5-1) will be on the road for the second week in a row while the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints (4-3) look to bounce back at home on Sunday following an embarrassing loss there to Cleveland last week.\u00a0 The Saints (-1 on the latest NFL betting odds) saw reigning Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees tie a career high with four interceptions in a 30-17 loss to the Browns, including two that were returned for touchdowns by Cleveland\u2019s David Bowens.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Steelers escaped Miami with a 23-22 victory last week after a controversial fumble by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger near the end zone stayed with them and led to the game-winning field goal.\u00a0 Despite that play, Roethlisberger has played like the NFL MVP since returning from his four-game suspension to start the season, posting a 122.4 passer rating.\u00a0 He completed 19 of 27 passes for 302 yards and two touchdowns against the Dolphins and has five touchdown passes and just one interception in his two games back with the team.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s top-ranked scoring defense has helped Roethlisberger and the rest of the offense by allowing just 13.7 points per game.\u00a0 The Steelers also rank first in the league in run defense, giving up only 63.7 yards per game on the ground this season.\u00a0 They likely will not be challenged by the New Orleans running backs since Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas remain out with injuries.<\/p>\n

However, the Saints could find some success passing the ball as long as Brees stay away from throwing the ball away to Pittsburgh.\u00a0 The Steelers have allowed just four touchdown passes, but they are giving up 235.7 passing yards per game, which ranks in the bottom 10 in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh is also dealing with some injuries with defensive end Aaron Smith out until at least December and possibly the season with a torn left triceps.\u00a0 The team is just 7-8 without Smith in the lineup, surrendering 22.5 points and 114.1 rushing yards per game in his absence.\u00a0 To make matters worse, defensive end Brett Keisel is also doubtful with a left hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

Brees threw for 398 yards in the last meeting with the Steelers at Heinz Field back in 2006, but that performance resulted in a 38-31 loss.\u00a0 Former Pittsburgh running back Willie Parker had a monster game in that win with 213 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and Rashard Mendenhall will try to take advantage of a Saints run defense that is giving up 108.7 rushing yards per game.\u00a0 Mendenhall has been held under 90 yards in the last three games after rushing for 120 or more in two of the team\u2019s first three games.<\/p>\n

New Orleans is 1-5 against the spread in its last six games and 2-8 ATS in its last 10 games on fieldturf.\u00a0 The Steelers are 3-1 straight-up and against the spread in the last four meetings with the Saints, although only two of those games have taken place over the last decade.<\/p>\n

Maddux Sports has released its strongest pick of the day on this game.\u00a0 We know we have the right side so use this game to bail yourself out of a losing Sunday or pile on the profits you have already made with Maddux’s Sunday Night Football Picks<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA Sunday, October 31, 2010, 8:20 pm EST, TV: NBC Opening Line: Saints Pick’em Current Line: Saints -1 Opening Total: 43 Current Total: 44 Money Line: Saints -120 \/ Steelers +100 The Pittsburgh Steelers (5-1) will be on the road for the second week in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2508,427,1930,1922,346,3672,3673,2990,3090],"class_list":["post-10128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-saints-steelers-preview","tag-saints-vs-steelers","tag-sunday-night-football-betting","tag-sunday-night-football-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10155,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions\/10155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}