NFL Preseason Betting – Lions Visit Steelers in Opener

Detroit Lions at Pittsburgh Steelers (-3, 36.5 o/u)

Are you ready for some football? Well a very diluted version of it, at least? Thanks to horrible field conditions at Tom Benson Hall-of-Fame Stadium on Sunday night, the NFL preseason kickoff was delayed until later this week. As of now, Heinz field is in good shape, and we will be treated to some preseason football this Friday night (7:00 PM Eastern), when the Detroit Lions visit the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Detroit Lions finished the 2015 season as one of the hotter teams in the league. Unfortunately, they started the season 1-7, so their 6-2 finish was too little, too late.

Entering 2016, the Lions will be without star receiver Calvin Johnson, who followed in the steps of Barry Sanders and retired young. There are a lot of questions surrounding how Matthew Stafford (4,262 passing yards, 32 TDs, 13 INTs in 2015) will react in his first season without Megatron. I doubt we’ll receive any concrete answer to that question this Friday night, as Stafford and the rest of the starters are only scheduled to play a couple series.

In order to replace Johnson, the Lions brought in free agent wide receivers Marvin Jones and Anquan Boldin. While neither are anywhere near the threat Johnson was, they both provide some needed depth at the position.

Three Lions that we won’t see at all are cornerback Darius Slay, running back Ameer Abdullah, and tight end Eric Ebron. All three are dealing with minor injuries, and head coach Jim Caldwell does not want to push them this early in camp.

Looking to Pittsburgh, I hope you’re ready to see what the Steelers offense won’t look like in 2016. Head coach Mike Tomlin has already ruled out Ben Roethlisberger (3,938 passing yards, 21 TDs, 16 INTs in 2015), Antonio Brown (136 receptions, 1,834 yards, 10 TDs in 2015), Le’Veon Bell, DeAngelo Williams (200 carries, 907 yards, and 11 TDs in 2015), and centre Maurkice Pouncey.

The Roethlisberger, Brown, and Bell are projected to form the core of one of the most high-powered offenses in the league in 2016, while Pouncey will provide the dirty-work, and Williams will spell Bell in the backfield (and maybe in the first four games of the season, as well). Even with Big Ben and Bell missing good chunks of 2015, the Steeler offense still managed to finish tied for fourth in points (26.4 per game) and put up the third-most yards (395.4 per game) in the league.

Last time these two teams met in the preseason (back in 2010), the Steelers emerged with a 23-7 Steelers win at home. But that has no bearing on what Friday night’s game has in store. Prepare yourself to watch Jake Rudock battle Landry Jones in what should be an extremely inefficient showing from both offenses.

I’m actually more optimistic about Rudock and Dan Orlovsky (Stafford’s backups) than I am about the Steeler QB pair of Jones and Bruce Gradkowski, but I feel much more confident about the depth the Steelers possess defensively. With that in mind, I wouldn’t touch either team in this game; instead, I prefer to rely on the ineptitude of backup quarterbacks.

Pick: Under (36.5)

Photo Credit: Andy (Roethlisberger Warm-Up) CC BY 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.