Miami Dolphins @ Pittsburgh Steelers, NFL Preview

Monday Night Football Bets

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL KICKS-OFF AT 1.20AM (Tuesday UK time)

Game Spread – Pittsburgh Steelers -14 | Game Total – 43.5 points

We cap off NFL week 8 going for our 5 NFL win in 6 bets as we added another win to our tally on Sunday night. The 0-6 Miami Dolphins head to Pittsburgh to face the 2-4 Steelers.

Miami look like big favourites to get the first draft pick next year with players wanting to get traded from week 1.

Key Stats

Dolphins are pretty awful – On top of this season’s losses they have totalled 9 losses in-a-row only covering the spread twice in nine games.
Unders is favoured for both sides – 4 of the last 5 Miami games and 5 of the last 7 Steelers have gone under the total. This is mainly because Miami struggle for points and Pittsburgh have their 2nd string quarterback Mason Rudolph under centre.

Can Ryan Fitzpatrick put points on the board again?

Ryan Fitzpatrick got the start in Buffalo last week and the offence did score double their average in the 21-31 loss but can he back that up this week? I’m not so sure as he is known for being great one week and shocking the next. Last season he got the nickname Fitzmagic for his start of the season for Tampa Bay but was quickly replaced and released at the end of the season.

He will also be without Kenyan Drake who wants to be traded and hasn’t travelled with the team which will give Miami less option in the run game. I expect Miami to be back near the season average of 11 than that 21 against Buffalo against this Steelers defence.

Will the banged up Steelers be good to go?

The Steelers are lucky to be coming off a bye week as they would have struggled with the number of players that were injured after the win at the Chargers. Quarterback Mason Rudolph was concussed pretty badly, he didn’t remember the hit that caused it. He has recovered for this and it looks like key players James Connor and TJ Watt will be fit to play after being upgraded to ‘probable’ on the injury report.

The offence has been average especially in the run department but this looks an ideal week for them as the Dolphins concede 160 yards rushing on average which is over double what the Steelers have managed. This combined with Miami conceding 30+ points in all but 1 game the Steelers could have a breakout game.

Monday night football verdict and bet

The Steelers should have too much for the Dolphins team and the run game should have a breakout game. I have the score going under and Steelers covering the fairly big 14 points with the Miami defence giving up 30+ a game.

The under is a popular trend and I can see the Steelers getting far enough ahead and running the clock. Score is a bit harder to predict but something like 27-10 sounds about right.

Miami Dolphins @ Pittsburgh Steelers (Double)

Pittsburgh Steelers to win -14 points

Under 43.5 points

Pays 2.5/1 with Bet365