Greg Shaker
Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
Play: Steelers -5
Let's get the first concern out of the way. Ben Roethlisberger's hand is much better and he will play tonight for the home team. The Baltimore QB will also and while he has led his team to two wins this year, he has not been that good with one of the lowest QB ratings in the NFL, no TD Passes and 2 INT's. The Steelers came off one of their worst whoopings in their history last week to Philly, allowing 9 sacks and just looking like hell all of the way. This team will be prepared to turn it around quick and they are in a good situation to do so with a 14-1 Home Record on Monday nite and 12-3 ATS as well. This is going to be a tough place to win for Baltimore tonight and I expect that Pitt will get very good home suport from the fans. We must not forget that Flacco will be in his first Hostile Environment tonight and that is a lot on his young shoulders. These Steelers are not the Bengals, nor the Browns and this will be the first real D that Flacco will face this year. Baltimore's D has been very good so far but despite that, they have only outgained their opponents by about 300 yards in the first 2 games. We can certainly see by the posted total that oddsmakers think this is going to be a low scoring game. I do agree somewhat with that assumption but I think that Pitt will get their share of points and some of those might come with their D efforts. The Steelers are just a much better team here at this stadium and they are very good following a loss. The Ravens have discovered that as they are just 1-6 ATS the last 7 times they have visited here, after Pittsburgh had lost the previous week. As good as Baltimore is against the run, the Steelers are just as good and Flacco is going to have to show us something through the air if Baltimore is going to hang around in this contest. He will get a lot of preasure tonight, and he will have a very difficult time calling audibles. Both teams have a lot of injuries but the Pitt injuries are healing much better according to the reports out today. I am playing the squad with the better skipper behind the center, the better situation in all respects. Baltimore is just in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong personel.