{"id":8534,"date":"2010-10-03T05:15:45","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T10:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2010-10-03T02:34:44","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T07:34:44","slug":"free-nfl-picks-for-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nfl-picks-for-sunday-8534\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NFL Picks For Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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No Roethlisberger, no problem, the Steelers at -2.5 are our free nfl picks for the Sunday betting card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the most dominant team in the young NFL season. They\u2019ve beaten good teams \u2013 Atlanta, Tennessee, and Tampa Bay. This week they have their toughest test when they welcome the Baltimore Ravens to the Steel City.<\/p>\n

The Steelers opened as 1 \u00bd point favorites. The line held steady for most of the week, but in the past day or two the line moved up to 2 \u00bd. However, 5 Dimes and SportBet are still listing the game at 1 \u00bd points. Given the way Pittsburgh\u2019s defense has shut down opponents, 3 points or less feels like a quality play. If you can grab 1 \u00bd, do so. But don\u2019t be afraid to back the Steelers at 2 \u00bd points.<\/p>\n

The main reason why Pittsburgh should win and cover is the running game. On the one side of the ball, Baltimore\u2019s rush offense hasn\u2019t been as productive as many people thought it would be. As a team, the Ravens are averaging an unimpressive 89 yards per game on 3.1 yards per carry. They\u2019ve played a couple good rush defenses in the Jets and Bengals. But they weren\u2019t able to dominate the Browns at home, which says something about where this team is at.<\/p>\n

The Steelers\u2019 rush D has been phenomenal. They\u2019re giving up 60 yards per game and only 2.6 yards per carry. And they\u2019ve done it against teams like Atlanta and Tennessee, who both have elite running backs. Baltimore\u2019s Ray Rice is probable for the game, but he\u2019s banged up. Even if he was healthy, though, he\u2019d have a hard time finding holes in the Steel Curtain.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, Pittsburgh has been able to run effectively even with a diminished passing attack. Rashard Mendenhall is stepping up, and the physical Pittsburgh offensive line has been doing its job. As a team, Pittsburgh is averaging 150 yards per game on 4.7 yards per carry. They\u2019ll line up against a Raven defense that has been subpar against the run this year. The vaunted Raven D has given up 128 rushing yards per game and an average of 4.7 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

Another reason to like Pittsburgh in this match-up is the turnover game. The Steelers are +6 and have 10 takeaways, thanks primarily to the 7 they grabbed against the Titans in Tennessee. Baltimore, on the other hand, is -6. Surprisingly, they have just 1 takeaway. If the Steelers can have a couple extra possessions, their rushing game should be able to wear down the Raven defense, chew up the clock, and maintain control of the game.<\/p>\n

Lastly, playing at home is definitely an advantage. That\u2019s why this spread is hard to figure. Oddsmakers are saying that on a neutral field, Baltimore would be a slight favor. I just don\u2019t buy that, even without Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers have been playing on a higher level. Having said that, home field advantage should pay dividends. They\u2019re 3-0 straight up against Baltimore at home in their recent match-ups, and 4-1 regardless of where the game was played.<\/p>\n

The one drawback is that Baltimore is 7-1 against the spread as a road underdog of 3 points or less in the past 3 seasons, and Pittsburgh is 0-3 as a home favorite of 3 points over less in the same period of time. That is some reason for worry, but look for the Steelers to reverse that trend on Sunday. Perhaps oddsmakers have kept this spread at a field goal or less so that bettors would see those tendencies. Don\u2019t be afraid to back the better team at home \u2013 they have good value at 3 points or less.<\/p>\n

Besides the free nfl picks we offer on the blog you can also get signed up for our email newsletter which provides more free football picks throughout the season.\u00a0 Also you should know that Maddux Sports has been crushing the books this season.\u00a0 We are currently on a 71% NFL picks run and have our 20 unit AFC North Game of the Year going today.\u00a0 Dont miss this easy winner and check out the\u00a0expert NFL picks page to get signed for our Sunday package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the most dominant team in the young NFL season. They\u2019ve beaten good teams \u2013 Atlanta, Tennessee, and Tampa Bay. This week they have their toughest test when they welcome the Baltimore Ravens to the Steel City. The Steelers opened as 1 \u00bd point favorites. The line held steady for most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":4302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[608,2992,1772,1930,346,2684],"class_list":["post-8534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-free-nfl-picks","tag-nfl-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-value-line"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534","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\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8609,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions\/8609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}