Vegas Likes Pittsburgh in NFL Opener

NFL News - September 1st, 2009 - Written by Scott

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be raising their sixth Super Bowl banner next Thursday and are favored to give the home crowd a win to cap it off. According to BetUS.com, the Steelers are five-point favorites over the Tennessee Titans, who had actually won the regular season title and the top seed in last year's AFC Playoffs. As of Tuesday there is no moneyline yet on the game and the over/under is 35.

The season-opener, which has recently highlighted the previous Super Bowl Champion, will be shown on prime time nationally on NBC and will showcase a free "Own The Moment" concert before the game with Tim McGraw and the Black Eyed Peas performing.

The Steelers are not the favorites to repeat as Super Bowl Champions (that hasn't happened since New England did it in '04-'05). The Patriots are actually the favorites to start the season, with a line of +450. Vegas has Pittsburgh at +900 and the Titans are at a distant +2000.

The last five seasons have allowed the Super Bowl winners to open the season at their stadium and the former champions have won each time, the most recent being the New York Giants' 16-7 win over Washington last year. Pittsburgh has a good chance of continuing that trend, returning almost all of it's top-rated defense from a year ago, only losing three players to free agency. Defensive back Bryant McFadden went to the Cardinals, linebacker Larry Foote bolted to Detroit and safety Anthony Smith signed with the Packers. The slightly-altered D has been great so far this preseason holding teams to nine points per game through the first three, including a shutout last Saturday against the Bills. The longest play Pittsburgh allowed against Buffalo was 17 yards and linebacker James Farrior beat that by himself when he housed a 22-yard interception.

Tennessee, meanwhile, is trying to recover from that flop in the the Playoffs. Kerry Collins is back under center, now only 3,159 yards from passing Joe Montana on the all-time yards list. He's thrown for more than that five times in his 15-year career. He has good company in the backfield. Chris Johnson and LenDale White (formerly known as "Smash and Dash") return with all of their 1,901 rushing yards and 24 scores. The Titans made an important off-season acquisition, reeling in a reliable pass catching tight end in Alge Crumpler. Wideout Justin Gage is having himself a very good preseason, The Leaf Chronicle in Tennessee is reporting, and is becoming Collins' main target with two touchdown strikes already.

Tennessee's defense has allowed 23 points a game through the preseason and are stuck at 2-2.

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