Thursday betting preview: Historically low total for Pats-Steelers
The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers are taking the NFL to new lows.
The Steelers are consensus 6-point home favorites against the Patriots on “Thursday Night Football” with a consensus total of 30, believed to be the lowest in recent NFL history.
Sportradar has tracked over-unders for the past 15 seasons, and that would be the lowest total in that span, beating the 32½ for a Saints-Browns game in Week 16 last season and a Browns-Steelers game in Week 14 of the 2009 season. Both those games finished under.
Station Casinos was down to 29½ overnight. Boyd Gaming and Circa Sports were at 30½.
It’s not hard to see why oddsmakers aren’t expecting many points. The Steelers (7-5, 7-5 against the spread, 2-10 over/under) rank 28th in the NFL in scoring offense with an average of 16.0 points per game.
The Patriots (2-10, 2-10 ATS, 3-9 over/under) are even worse, ranking last in the league at 12.3 ppg. New England has lost three straight games without giving up more than 10 points — 10-6 to Indianapolis, 10-7 to the New York Giants and 6-0 on Sunday to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Additionally, both teams will be starting backup quarterbacks. Mitch Trubisky will start for Pittsburgh in place of the injured Kenny Pickett, while Bailey Zappe is expected to start again for New England in place of the ineffective Mac Jones.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X. The Associated Press contributed to this story.