Quite often the Monday Night Football is the showpiece occasion of the week but given that the combatants of this week’s one have just two wins in 12 matches between them, the match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins is clearly the exception to the norm.
Of course when the season started the narrative of this match was that it was a side likely to be battling for the AFC North against the Super Bowl hosts and could be an eye catching match. The reality is it appears a mismatch between two sides missing a lot of stars.
Pittsburgh Steelers
To an extent there is an excuse for the 2-4 record of the Pittsburgh Steelers as they have been without their first choice quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for much of the campaign and even their second in command Mason Rudolph missed some matches but they would still have wanted to be doing better than they are. To be fair to them, three of their four defeats on the season have been by four points or fewer so they could easily have been 4-2 or 5-1.
The Steelers are expected to have Mason Rudolph back for the Monday Night Football which will be one boost for the home side. Minkah Fitzpatrick plays against his former side and there is no doubt he has boosted the Pittsburgh defence since his arrival. He’ll be right up for this one. Juju Smith-Schuster and James Conner have disappointed this season even allowing for the quarterback situation. Now would be a good time for them to come good.
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Miami Dolphins
At 0-6 for the campaign few can argue with the Miami Dolphins giving up on the season and looking ahead and the trade away of Kenyan Drake on Monday highlights that they are doing just that. They are building up a number of picks for the next draft that suggests they are going to tear it up and start again in Miami. That probably isn’t the worst move because their season hasn’t really ever got started and continues to go nowhere.
So bad has been their production this term that they have once again gone back to Ryan Fitzpatrick but even FitzMagic hasn’t been able to get them over the line, although they were a botched 2pt conversion away from beating the Washington Redskins a couple of weeks ago. The Dolphins have the bad combination of only putting up more than 20pts in a match once and only keeping their opposition to few than 30pts the same amount of times and that was Washington which barely counts.
Betting
The handicap for this match is 14pts which seems a lot but I wouldn’t be wholly surprised if the Pittsburgh Steelers cover it but I can’t be taking it even allowing for the fact this Miami defence is woeful. I considered the over in the total at 43.5 which might well also cover but Miami might need to help that line along and I’m not convinced I want that on my side either so it is a player prop for me for this one.
I expect a decent showing out of Mason Rudolph. The Miami secondary is obliterated and as a result not very good and their pass rush is having massive problems getting to the quarterback this season. I don’t see a reason why either factor is going to change here so this should be a night that the Steelers back up can run riot. He has enough receiving options either through wide receivers, tight ends or screen passes and check downs to the running back to complete a lot of passes and so I expect him to sail beyond 230.5 passing yards.
Tips
WON – Back M.Rudolph – Over 230.5 passing yards for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
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