{"id":18216,"date":"2011-10-01T21:06:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T02:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18216"},"modified":"2011-10-01T21:14:22","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T02:14:22","slug":"nfl-picks-against-the-spread-pittsburgh-steelers-at-houston-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-picks-against-the-spread-pittsburgh-steelers-at-houston-texans-18216\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Picks Against the Spread: Pittsburgh Steelers at Houston Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Steelers at Houston Texans
\nSunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 45.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 45
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Texans<\/a>
The Houston Texans high-powered offense takes on the always formidable Pittsburgh Steelers defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pittsburgh has bounced back after a season-opening loss to the Baltimore Ravens, winning consecutive games, but many are questioning if the team has dropped off a bit since losing to the Green Bay Packers in last year\u2019s Super Bowl.\u00a0 The Steelers have had success in throwing the football this year, but the rushing attack has been slowed by injuries on the offensive line, ranking 23rd in the NFL in that category.\u00a0 Pittsburgh is 14-19 ATS and 6-10 ATS at home over the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Steelers want to get running back Rashard Mendenhall going, as he\u2019s gained only 148 yards on a 3.0 per carry average this year.\u00a0 He rank for a career high 1,273 yards last year.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a mindset, it\u2019s a physical part of it,\u201d commented Mendenhall.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s matchups, it\u2019s a lot of things that all together need to be clicking on all cylinders for it to be productive.\u201d\u00a0 Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has done his job in ranking sixth in the league in passing for 314 yards a contest.<\/p>\n

Houston dropped a 40-33 contest to the New Orleans Saints last week as 3.5-point road underdogs, as the team will return home after spending two weeks on the road.\u00a0 The Texans have won the statistical battle in all three games this season, while posting a 2-1 ATS record.\u00a0 Quarterback Matt Schaub was on the top of his game last week, throwing for 373 yards and three touchdowns, but the defense led by new coordinator Wade Phillips, allowed 23 fourth-quarter points.\u00a0 Houston is 14-19 ATS over the last two-plus seasons, including a 6-10 ATS mark at home.<\/p>\n

The Texans bring in the second-best defense in the league despite only forcing a single turnover.\u00a0 That could certainly change in facing a Pittsburgh team that is last in the league with a minus-nine turnover margin.\u00a0 Houston has plenty of confidence and wide receiver Andre Johnson thinks the franchise is primed to make a playoff run.\u00a0 \u201cI think that just the atmosphere, period, around here, I think it\u2019s totally different,\u201d Johnson commented in practice this week.\u00a0 In his nine seasons with the Texans, the team has garnered just one winning season.\u00a0 This will be the fourth meeting between these two teams, as the Texans have dropped two straight since winning the first meeting in 2002.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Texans due to their 5-1-1 ATS mark as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points, while the Steelers are 2-5 ATS in October.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Steelers at Houston Texans Sunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 45.5 Current Total:\u00a0 45 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Pittsburgh has bounced back after a season-opening loss to the Baltimore Ravens, winning consecutive games, but many are questioning if the team has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2871,349,1120,452,346,62],"class_list":["post-18216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-andre-johnson","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-houston-texans","tag-matt-schaub","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-rashard-mendenhall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18216","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=18216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18218,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18216\/revisions\/18218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}