{"id":17289,"date":"2011-08-26T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17289"},"modified":"2011-08-26T16:59:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T21:59:43","slug":"nfl-preseason-schedule-2011-atlanta-falcons-at-pittsburgh-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-preseason-schedule-2011-atlanta-falcons-at-pittsburgh-steelers-17289\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Preseason Schedule 2011: Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers
\nSaturday, 8\/27\/11, 7:30 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -4.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 36
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 35.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Steelers<\/a>
The Pittsburgh Steelers have won all six previous meetings with the Atlanta Falcons during the preseason<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlanta has come away with an 0-2 NFL preseason record through the first two weeks and now will be looking to avenge a season-opening loss that it suffered in Week 1 of the 2010 campaign.\u00a0 The Falcons failed as one-point road favorites in that contest, unable to come away with a victory despite the Steelers playing without starting quarterback Ben Roehtlisberger due to suspension.\u00a0 It won\u2019t come easy Saturday night due to the squad\u2019s 0-6 mark versus Pittsburgh during the preseason.\u00a0 The last such meeting came in 2001, a 17-16 defeat.\u00a0 Atlanta is 3-1 ATS as an underdog during exhibition action.<\/p>\n

The Falcons will be hard-pressed to get a running game going against a defensive unit that allowed a league-best 62.8 yards per game last season.\u00a0 Atlanta has been unable to get starting running back Michael Turner going in the opening two weeks, as he\u2019s averaging just 3.2 yards a carry.\u00a0 It\u2019s still possible when finding that the vaunted Steelers\u2019 stop unit is allowing 119 yards a contest thus far in exhibition play.\u00a0 \u201cIt really is nice to have a good physical test like this,\u201d said Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s going to get us right for when we gear up and go in September.\u201d\u00a0 The former Boston College star is 13 for 25 for 206 yards and two touchdowns in the first two preseason games.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh got back to playing its kind of football in a 24-14 home win over the Philadelphia Eagles as three-point favorites last week and head coach Mike Tomlin knows the bar has been raised in the Steel City with Super Bowl appearances in two of the last three years.\u00a0 The Steelers have gone without implementing a game plan in the first two weeks, but that will not be the case Saturday.\u00a0 \u201cThe situational element of this game will be an interesting one,\u201d Tomlin commented.\u00a0 \u201cI imagine both teams will prepare situationally, be it third-down, red-zone or goal-line.\u201d\u00a0 Pittsburgh is 2-0 ATS versus NFC South division opponents in the preseason over the last three years.<\/p>\n

The Steelers are starting to get up their in age and will be looking to prove their critics wrong after playing more games than any team the past three years.\u00a0 Pittsburgh has the oldest defense in the NFL and the offense is ranked No. 13.\u00a0 As far as playing time in Week 3 this week, the coaching staff has stated that starters will play at least the first half.\u00a0 One storyline that has emerged from camp this week and may show up more in the final two preseason games is the no-huddle offense.\u00a0 Roethlisberger has been dynamite during his career in running the two-minute offense and the Falcons should be prepared for it.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Falcons due to their 5-1 ATS mark on the road under head coach Mike Smith, while the Steelers are just 3-3 when playing with eight days of rest during preseason action.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a fantastic season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you.\u00a0 Get in the game today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday, 8\/27\/11, 7:30 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -4.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 36 Current Total:\u00a0 35.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Atlanta has come away with an 0-2 NFL preseason record through the first two weeks and now will be looking to avenge a season-opening loss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[123,349,422,423,878,3737,346],"class_list":["post-17289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-matt-ryan","tag-michael-turner","tag-mike-smith","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17289","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17291,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17289\/revisions\/17291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}