Steelers Chiefs Line


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This week the  Pittsburgh Steelers will go on the road to face the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. The Steelers bounced back from a tough loss against the Ravens with a 24-17 win at Cincinnati the last time they took the field, and will return from their bye week looking to take advantage of  Chiefs team that was dominated 34-3 by the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football.  The last time these two teams faced each other was in 2009, when the Chiefs won 27-24 as 10.5 point underdogs.

Taking a look at the week 12 spreads, oddsmakers currently have the Steelers favored by 10.5-points over the Chiefs with the total set at 40 points.

Pittsburgh Steelers:

The Steelers are currently tied with the Ravens on top the AFC North at 7-3, but their two losses against the Ravens would have them as a Wild Card team if the playoffs were to start this weekend. With six games left the Steelers can still win the division outright, but they have to take care of teams likes Kansas City on the road.

While the Steelers put together an impressive performance to beat the Bengals in week 10, they left the game wondering whether or not Ben Roethlisberger would be able to play this week against the Chiefs. Roethlisberger broke his thumb on his throwing hand, but the injury isn’t expected to keep him from finishing the season.

Roethlisberger ended up throwing for 245 yards and a touchdown in the win over Cincinnati, while Rashard Mendenhall fought his way for 44 yards and two touchdowns against a stingy Bengals run defense.

It will be interesting to see how much the injury effects what the Steelers do offensively against the Chiefs. They are 7th in the NFL with an average of 273.2 passing yards a game, but haven’t exactly had a lot of success running the ball.  However, they figure to have a good chance at getting the ground game going against the Chiefs, who are 28th in the NFL giving up 136.3 ypg.

Kansas City Chiefs:

Things have really taken a turn for the worst in Kansas City after they surprised everyone by winning four straight to tie for the AFC West lead. They have lost three straight since that point by a combined score of 82-16.

The big news in Kansas City is the recent addition of quarterback Kyle Orton off waivers. Kansas City lost starting quarterback Matt Cassel for the rest of the season in their 10-17 loss to Denver, and backup Tyler Palko showed no signs of being able to lead this offense to a division title with his performance against the Patriots last week. Palko completed 25 of 38 passes for 236 yards, but had three costly interceptions and really struggled when New England brought pressure.

The bad news for Chiefs fans is it doesn’t look like Orton will be able to play this week, which means an offense that has scored one offensive touchdown in their last three games will have to start Palko against a Steelers defense that is considered by many to be the best in the NFL.

If it holds true and Orton doesn’t start for Kansas City this week, I have a hard time seeing the Chiefs offense getting it going against a Pittsburgh defense that is 3rd against the pass (183.2 ypg) and 6th against the run (96.9 ypg).

Betting Trends:

Pittsburgh is 8-3 ATS vs. a team with a losing record.

Kansas City is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 home games vs. a team with a winning road record.

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