2005 Pittsburgh Steelers NFL Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Not much was expected from the 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers, certainly not the incredible and unbelievable 15-1 season that they ended up having because a rookie quarterback was forced to take the reigns early in the season after the starter was injured.

The Steelers won their first game at home against Oakland and then lost at Baltimore in week two, losing both games against the sports betting odds. Rookie Ben Roethlisberger was forced to take over at quarterback and the rest was yet another blind-side hurled against most of the sports betting players wagering on their pro football picks at online sports betting websites and sportsbooks.

Starting with an ugly 13-3 win at Miami the Steelers went undefeated straight up for the rest of the regular season and would win seven straight against the sports betting odds. By the time they entered Cincinnati to face the Bengals On November 21, the “word” was out among sports betting players both at online sports betting blogs and casino sportsbooks and Pittsburgh’s value was depleted against the sports betting odds as “everyone” wanted a piece of Roethlisberger and the Steelers.

Pittsburgh would beat the sports betting odds in just three of their final seven regular season games as the prices were adjusted by the sports betting odds makers to counteract public demand. This is a classic example of when the general ignorant public, who wanted nothing to do with the Steelers on their football picks the first few weeks that Roethlisberger started, jumping on a bandwagon and throwing the value of a team against the sports betting odds completely out of whack.

Many wiser sports betting players, in fact, posted blogs at online sports betting chat boards before that Cincinnati game stating that they felt it was time to get off Pittsburgh, as they saw no value in laying five points at Cincinnati. Other sports betting players went with the old sports gambling rule which states that you can only lose to the sports betting odds ONCE when betting ON a streak, so many stuck it out and got the push against the online sports betting boards in that Steelers win at Cincinnati, before Pittsburgh finally failed to beat the spread the next week in their 16-7 win at home over Washington as 10-point chalks. By that time, Pittsburgh offered no value and the pros went elsewhere for sports betting value.