Baltimore at Pittsburgh (01/18/2009)

I'll take the 6 thank you!

Pitt will destroy them. Why else do we a -6 when we all know it should be -3 at best. I'm taking Pitt and betting against the rookie.

[/Quote]

A punt return for touchdown is a fluke play? I'll give you the bad punt bouncing off Weddle's head but I don't see how you can say a punt return is a fluke play.

I'd say the Ravens were much luckier  last week. Tennesse had 3 turnovers inside the Ravens 20. Tennessee wasted a half-dozen scoring opportunities with errors. One came on Samari Rolle's interception at the Ravens 12 on a popup Kerry Collins threw under pressure from a blitz in the second period. Another was Collins' fourth-down fumble in Baltimore territory, which the quarterback recovered. The third was LenDale White's fumble at the Baltimore 17 in the final minute of the half. And don't forget the biggest Tennessee turnover came with about 9 minutes to go when Alge Crumpler fumbled near the Baltimore goal line. Did I also mention that one play at the end of the game when the referees failed to throw their flag on a delay of game penalty against Baltimore when the ball was obviously snapped a good 3 seconds after time had expired. Of the 2 teams this weekend I'd say Baltimore is the luckier of the 2 to be here

Big Ben had 15 picks and 7 lost fumbles this season. And he was sacked 46 times.

In two games against the Ravens he had a 56 percent completion percentage, threw for 437 yards and had 2 touchdowns and 1 INT. He was sacked six times. And had two fumbles, losing 1.

I'm not very confident in Big Ben on Sunday.

Stalker: That was the Steelers first punt return for a TD this season. Holmes only averages 6.6 return yards per punt. Yes, the fact that their first punt return for a TD came in a playoff game I'd say is lucky.

I agree with you that the Ravens are very fortunate to be here. I bet on the Titans big and I'm still not over that loss. But I also had the Titans rated much higher than both the Steelers and the Ravens. The Ravens and Steelers are about equal, as their regular season games have shown.

Also, Pittsburgh didn't score on the Weddle fumble. They were stopped at the San Diego 1. There were no fluke 14 points. They returned a punt for touchdown. That's not a fluke. Due your research before you post random things.

And Flacco's numbers are much worse against Pittsburgh this year than Ben's are against Baltimore. In their 2 games this year, Flacco has gone 27-59 for an average of 153.5 yards/game, completed just over 45% of his passes, has 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and a very costly fumble in the first game that turned into a Steelers touchdown for a qb rating of 52.

I'm not very confident in Flacco on Sunday.

I said those two special teams plays were 14 point swings. Which they were. And as you can see by my post, I do research.

You sound like a Steelers fan. I'm not here to argue with someone over their favorite team. This is a handicapping forum.

How can it be a 14 point swing when there were no points scored after the fumble? Pittsburgh didn't score after the fumble and you can't be positive San Diego would've scored if they had recovered the fumble. So how did the points swing there? I still don't see how a punt return is a fluke special teams play either? I don't care what if his punt return average is or how many times he's returned a punt for TD. The NFL average is only around 9.5 and only 8 guys have returned punts this year. That doesn't mean when someone does it it's a fluke.  

You said you weren't confident in Ben because he didn't play good against the Ravens this year even though Flacco played much worse against the Steelers. Where's the logic in that?

I know this is a handicapping forum. That's why when people make ridiculous comments I feel like I should correct them so people don't get innaccurate information. And actually I'm a Browns fan so I pretty much hate both teams equally. Probably hate Pittsburgh more because I live here and am around more of their fans.  But they're the better and healthier team right now.

Pittsburgh ML HUGE

I never said I was confident in Flacco. I explained why I didn't have confidence in Ben - there's a difference - and, as a result, why I think the game will be within the 6 points the Steelers are laying. Stop acting like an idiot.

Agreed. And I'd say best of luck to your team also, but I'm a Browns fan. This matchup doesn't get much worse for me. I hate both teams. But with money on the line, I have to take the points.