Christian Petersen/Getty Images. Pictured: Jalen Hurts
Steelers vs. Eagles Odds
| Steelers Odds | +1 |
| Eagles Odds | -1 |
| Over/Under | 36 (-110/-110) |
| Time | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| Odds as of Thursday morning and via BetMGM | |
It’s tough to bet the NFL preseason because there are so many unknowns.
We may know most of the starters, but have no idea how long they’ll play. And we have no way to know a team’s motivations or interest in winning a game. That means I usually prefer to isolate something I feel a bit more confident about and stick to what I do know.
Here’s what I know about these teams: The Steelers have already played this preseason. They put on a dominant performance in the Hall of Fame Game, beating the Cowboys 16-3, shutting them out over the final three quarters. That’s no real surprise for anyone who has watched Pittsburgh football over the past, oh, five or six decades — the Steel Curtain is real, and this defense is very good and made to chew up and spit out inexperience and unprepared offenses.
And that leads us to the Eagles. They haven’t played a game yet, so that means this is their first real game action since last season. And what a season that was…n’t?
This is a very different team than the one we last saw, which you might recall finished 2020 by playing a QB buried on the depth chart in an obvious tanking move to end the season. Carson Wentz is gone, and so is Super Bowl-winning head coach Doug Pederson. Nick Sirianni is in now, and that means an entirely new offense for Jalen Hurts, who wasn’t particularly good yet with the old one.
I’m betting on a slow learning curve out of the gate for Hurts and this Sirianni offense.
I like the Steelers to look better and readier, so I’ll play them to win the first half at -110 at BetMGM — that’s the part of the game I actually know what to expect, and it means I don’t have to worry about the Eagles’ scrubs beating up on the Steelers’ backups to get Sirianni a win late in his first live game.
If you can’t find the Pittsburgh first-half ML at even money or better, though, I would roll with the Steelers to cover the first half instead.
PICK: Steelers First Half ML -110
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