NFL Week 10 New England Patriots vs Pittsburgh Steelers

New England Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick is recognized as one of the best coaches in the NFL betting odds and known for wildly successful defensive schemes.

Against the 6-2 Pittsburgh Steelers he’s going to have to pull a major defensive rabbit out of the hat as his 6-2 Pats have been awful on that side of the ball this year and will pulverized by a balanced Steelers attack if they don’t tighten up.

New England is coming off a Week 9 loss in which the team gave up 34 points and 230 yards rushing to the then 2-5 Cleveland Browns.

Imagine what a Steelers’ offense led by Big Ben and Rashard Medenhall would to would do that type of defense?

Kickoff for this Sunday matchup is set for 8:30 Eastern Time and SBG Global opened with the Steelers as a 4.5-point favorite with an over/under total at 45.

Obviously it’s unlikely that a Belichick coached defense would play that poorly in back to back games but anything seems possible in the unpredictable 2010 NFL gambling action.  No one would expect a Belichick defense to be ranked in the bottom 10 of the NFL, but it is.  The Pats are giving up 23.5 points per game.  And that’s not just a scoring anomaly or Red Zone weakness. The Pats are also giving up 360.5 total yards per game; 213.5 yards passing and mind-boggling 147.0 yards on the ground.

 These weaknesses are of course balanced out by team’s many strengths.  New England ahs 14 INTs (3 returned for TDs this season) and 7 FF for a combined 12 take a ways this year.  And of course a team like the Pats can give up plenty of points as QB Tom Brady helms the 2nd highest scoring offense in the league (27.4 ppg).

However, that may not be enough against the Steelers as the Pats weaknesses run even deeper.  The team has just 6.0 sacks on the year and the worst thing an opponent can do is give Big Ben time to set up the deep routes to speedster WR Mike Wallace, arguably the fastest man in the NFL.

The Pats’ point’s production has slowed over the past month, dipping to just over 22 ppg.

The smart money in this sports betting matchup is on the home team Steelers.