Last week I wrote on the Pittsburg/Tennessee matchup and how the betting public couldn’t get enough of the Steelers. The Titans were coming off a 13-12 loss to the Texans, Kerry Collins was horrific, Albert Haynesworth was out till the playoffs with a knee injury.
The line opened at Tennessee minus one and within hours, the Steelers were a point favorite. By mid-week it was up to two and by game time Sunday, it was three everywhere. At some places it was Steelers minus three -120. The final ??? Tennessee 31-14.
This week, it’s win or go home. The winner of the Denver/San Diego game wins the AFC West, the loser can start thinking about the draft. The Bolts have won three straight after a 4-8 start. The Broncos have lost three straight including last week’s home game that they led 13-0 and amassed 523 yards.
San Diego is at home and has been installed an 8.5 point favorite. The Broncos shouldn’t even get on the plane right ???
Two weeks ago, the Chargers were down 21-3 in the third quarter to the Chiefs before catching lightning in a bottle and coming away with an improbable 22-21 win. With 5:00 left in the game, Phillip Rivers led a 15 play 89 yard drive to score with 1:13 left. The two-point conversion to make it 21-18 was no good 21-16. The Bolts recovered the onside kick and four plays and 35 seconds later, Rivers finds Antonio Gates for 10 yards and a 22-21 win.
Prior to getting spanked by Carolina in their last roadie, the Broncos had thoroughly dominated the Jets in the Meadowlands 34-17 and the game before that handed a pretty tough Falcon team their only home loss this year going virtually wire-to-wire in 24-20 win. Again, the Bronco offense did generate 500+ yards of offense.
There are plenty of great sub-plots in this one besides the win or go home scenario. There’s the Hochuli Bowl game in Week I , a blown official’s call that would have made this game moot. There’s the “unofficial” Cutler/Rivers feud. These teams genuinely do not like each other.
Lay the eight ??? Proceed with caution !!!
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