Hello my friends….
The storm sweeping up the east coast made me drop a few games that I really liked from consideration, I loved Washington at home against Carolina but would have loved them even more if they had lost to Denver and the weather was doing to be dry instead of wet for this contest, also, if not for weather concerns the Jags over Miami might have been a play.
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Pitts & Det….OVER 35.5
Saturday 8/14 7:30 pm est
3***Play Selection
Both teams want to get off to a good start here after coming off disappointing seasons that saw the Lions post a cellar dwelling 5-11 straight up and 9-7 ATS record and the Steelers posting a 6-10 straight up and 8-8 ATS record.
This contest will mark the 4th straight year that these two teams will meet and greet in the pre-season, Pittsburgh has won three of the four meetings overall, however, in a strange twist this is the second year in a row that the Steelers will open up their pre-season by traveling to Detroit.
The Lions won the pre-season battle last year by the final of 26-13 and Steeler HC Bill Cowher will remember that the opening pre-season loss to Detroit snow balled into a 1-3 straight up and 0-4 ATS overall 2003 pre-season record that in turn snow balled into a dismal regular season record.
Detroit posted a 2-2 straight up and ATS pre-season mark last year under first year HC Steve Mariucci with both wins and covers taking place in front of the home crazies, motor city fans will get their first look see at what could be one of the more explosive offenses in the NFL this season as rookie WR Roy Williams along with a healthy Charles Rogers play pass and catch with QB Joey Harrington, the only missing piece is injured RB Kevin Jones who is expected to miss this contest.
Look for both teams to play to win in this opener as a means to “Set the tone” on what they hope will be a successful season as this contest should easily fly OVER the posted total as both teams feature explosive offensive talent, the Steelers have their same assortment of quality WR’s and should benefit from a mostly healthy offensive line, however, Pittsburgh did lose backup QB Charlie Batch to a season ending knee injury, rumor has it that the Steelers are talking to former Dallas QB Quincy Carter as a replacement.
The Steelers will start QB Tommy Maddox with the remainder of the game featuring 11th round draft pick “Big Ben” Roethlisberger followed by former Boston College QB and 3rd year man Brian St. Pierre under center, the Steelers will be hobbled on defense as they have injuries to their defensive secondary and to their linebacking corps.
Detroit finds themselves in the same position as Pittsburgh with regard to having to enter this battle short handed on the defensive side of things as LB Boss Bailey and CB Fernando Bryant are out with injuries and CB Dre' Bly is listed as questionable.
KEY STAT:
Pittsburghs last four pre-season road outings ( including their last two trips to Detroit ) have all gone OVER the total, meanwhile, Detroit has exceeded the posted total in 5 of their last 6 home pre-season games.
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Tenn & Cleve….OVER 36.5
Saturday 8/14 7:30 pm est
2**Play Selection
A battle between two teams that once upon a time resided in the AFC central division, the Titans enter this contest without long time RB Eddie George in the backfield and will be taking a close look at Chris Brown and newly signed former Patriot Antowain Smith to fill the role.
Tenny appears to be pretty healthy on offense and will start and play QB Steve McNair for the first two or three series before quality backup QB Billy Volek enters the fray followed by former college comeback king Jason Gesser, defense is another matter as the Titans will definitely be short handed in that department with injuries along the defensive front, the linebacking corps and the defensive secondary.
The brownies enter this contest a bit distracted after reports of starting QB Jeff Garcia possibly being homosexual, at least according to former SF teammate Terrell Owens that is, reports out of Cleveland suggest that the local media has been asking brownie players if they would be comfortable sharing the shower with Garcia if it turns out to be true, either way this can’t be good for team cohesiveness.
Cleveland finally got rookie TE Kellen Winslow into camp after signing him August 11th to a contract said to be worth $40 million if incentives are met, a training camp battle is in progress between RB’s Lee Suggs and William Green so I would expect to see each RB to try to break off a long gainer in this contest in order to turn eyes their way.
Like Tenny, the Brownies are also beat up on defense but not quite as badly as the Titans, however, Tenny HC Jeff Fisher tends to take these pre-season affairs more seriously then his counterpart Butch Davis, both teams have experienced QB’s backing up their starters and both teams have injuries to the defense…sounds like and easy OVER to me!!
KEY STAT:
Tenny has exceeded the posted total in 7 of their last 12 pre-season games overall, but more importantly have gone OVER the total in 5 of their last 6 home pre-season games, meanwhile, Cleve has exceeded the posted total in 6 of their last 8 pre-season games and have gone OVER the total in 5 of their last 6 pre-season road games.
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Take care and be well my friends
Jim Campbell
