{"id":10746,"date":"2010-11-18T00:52:29","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T05:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10746"},"modified":"2010-11-18T00:53:56","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T05:53:56","slug":"nfl-game-picks-steelers-vs-raiders-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-game-picks-steelers-vs-raiders-predictions-10746\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Game Picks: Steelers Vs Raiders Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA
\nSunday, November 21, 2010, 1:00 pm EST, TV: CBS
\nOpening Line: Steelers -8.5
\nCurrent Line: Steelers -7
\nOpening Total: 41
\nCurrent Total: 41.5
\nMoney Line: Steelers -320 \/ Raiders +260<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Steelers
Ben Roethlisberger will try to keep the Steelers from losing two in a row at home against the Raiders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Oakland Raiders (5-4) snuck up on the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) last year when they were 3-8 and pulled off a shocking 27-24 victory at Heinz Field.\u00a0 That will not be the case this time around when the Raiders visit Pittsburgh (-7) for the second time in as many years on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Oakland is riding a three-game winning streak and coming off a bye week to help them prepare for the Steelers, who were clobbered 39-26 at home by New England on Sunday night.\u00a0 One of those wins for the Raiders was a 59-14 rout of Denver on the road in Week 7.\u00a0 That victory was the team\u2019s third straight cover of what is now a streak of five wins in a row against the spread.<\/p>\n

Last year, Pittsburgh native Bruce Gradkowski led Oakland to the upset win over the Steelers by completing 20 of 33 passes for 308 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.\u00a0 Jason Campbell will get the nod under center but has a much more powerful running game than Gradkowski did, as running back Darren McFadden is having a career year.\u00a0 McFadden carried the ball nine times in last year\u2019s game for a total of 25 yards, and he is averaging more than 108 yards per game this season.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s defense struggled a bit in the last four games, giving up 20 points or more after failing to allow more than 13 in four of the first five.\u00a0 The Steelers still lead the NFL in run defense, allowing only 63.2 yards per game on the ground.\u00a0 But Patriots quarterback Tom Brady\u2019s 350-yard game pushed their pass defense into the league\u2019s bottom 10, as they are surrendering 252.2 yards per game through the air.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a deceiving game against New England, as a big chunk of his yardage came after his team trailed by nearly three touchdowns.\u00a0 Roethlisberger finished the game with 387 passing yards and three touchdowns, two of which came in the last 6:34 after the Pats led 29-10.\u00a0 Kicker Jeff Reed was also cut this week after missing a 26-yard field goal, the seventh time he missed one in 22 attempts this year.<\/p>\n

After winning three in a row both straight-up and against the spread to open the season, Pittsburgh has covered just two of its last six.\u00a0 The OVER has cashed in the last two games for the Steelers along with four of five.\u00a0 The OVER is also 3-1 on the road for the Raiders this season.<\/p>\n

If you are betting this Steelers vs. Raiders game, be sure to check out the winning NFL picks packages we offer.\u00a0 You can also get free winners on our free NFL picks page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA Sunday, November 21, 2010, 1:00 pm EST, TV: CBS Opening Line: Steelers -8.5 Current Line: Steelers -7 Opening Total: 41 Current Total: 41.5 Money Line: Steelers -320 \/ Raiders +260 The Oakland Raiders (5-4) snuck up on the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) last year when they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2539,2508,1930,1922,300,346,3910],"class_list":["post-10746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-football-betting","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers-raiders-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746","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=10746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10748,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions\/10748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}