Will the Pittsburgh Steelers make the point spread against the San Diego Chargers in week 14?

The San Diego Chargers with a current record of 4 wins and 8 losses meet the Pittsburgh Steelers at home in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field.

Even though the Chargers hold the #2 spot in the AFC West Division, their hopes of gainging a wild card spot have completely evaporated. In fact they have lost 5 of their last 6 games and I am sure that the confidence has been really battered almost as much as the players themselves.

One of the things that has hurt the Chargers this year is injuries. They have lost a number of key players throughout the season and the most difficult thing it was often from the defensive line. They have seen the loss of line backers Jarret Johnson and Donald Butler, tackles Mike Harris and Jeromey Clary, as well as safety’s Corey Lynch and Darrell Stuckey. Lynch and Johnson both did practice so they will likely see some play this week.

Even though quarterback Phillip Rivers has 65% in reception attempts he just isn’t getting the opportunity to throw enough partly due to his line not being able to protect him long enough to get rid of the ball.

Rivers is likely to throw the ball some on Sunday and we could even see a few receptions and big plays from one of his favorite receivers Malcom Floyd tight end Antonio Gates, but keep in mind this game is with the Steelers.

So are you saying the Chargers don’t have a chance against the Steelers?

No not at all. But what I am saying is that the Pittsburgh Steelers have the #1 ranked defense in the entire league. They did not get there by allowing a lot of big plays on their opponent’s offense, especially by teams having somewhat of a weak season.

They are one tough football team and this is one of the toughest opponents the Chargers will have had to deal with the entire season. It would not surprise me one bit to see the Steelers get at least one if not more fumbles and an interception is certainly not out of the question.

The Steelers defense has done ok with that this year but even more than that, they do a good job of stopping 3rd down conversions. I do think this will be quite evident in this week’s game.

Pittsburgh also has to put some points on the board to win. I caught an article late last night that said that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did practice yesterday (Wednesday) so there is a possibility he will start against the Cahrgers. Roethlisberger has been out with a sholder injury suffered last month against the Kansas City Cheifs.

A number of reports and articles I have read in recent weeks stated that the Steelers had absolutely no chance of making the playoffs without him. I’m not sure how true that is, but their chances clearly do improve a great deal with him healthy and back in the game.

To be honest I wanted to write this game up a few days ago but held off since many of the books had not published their odds on this game. I am fairly sure they wanted to wait until the reports came in mid week to see if Roethlisberger did in fact make practice and what the propbabilities were that he would be starting the game.

As of Thursday afternoon, the lines starting to show up at the bookies for the Chargers-Steelers game. Mid day US time William Hill had not yet put their line up but Bet Online had the spread at 7 points in favor of the Steelers.

Without their starting quarterback I am not sure how much of a spread would have been acceptable, but with him starting, I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers are a safe bet and that they should have no problem covering a 7 point spread.

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