Early Thursday Night Football Preview
This Thursday Night Football game will be a match-up that pits two teams against each other with a storied history. Over the years when these two teams have met it was ugly football. A lot of ground and pound and heavy defense oriented confrontations is what these two teams have delivered in the past.
Well things certainly have changed for both these teams. Both the Steelers and Titans defense has slipped the last couple of seasons, the Titans and Steelers offensive line cannot protect their quarterbacks and neither team have had much success running the ball.
When we look at the Steelers last game, the Philadelphia Eagles could not pull out another shoe-string win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, instead it was the Steelers who came back to get the close victory 16-14. It was a last second 34-yard kick by Shaun Suisham that got the Steelers the win.
Pittsburgh also welcomed Rashard Mendenhall back who ran for 81 yards and a touchdown in his first game of the season, hopefully a sign that the Steelers will be capable of establishing a run.
A quick Eagles side note: the grumblings of Michael Vick being replaced are not likely to stop after his performance against the Steelers. He had 175 yards and two touchdowns but also fumbled the ball twice. The Titans have looked terrible in nearly every outing they have had this season. Chris Johnson, the man that once ran 2,000 yards in a season, now averages under three yards a carry.
The Titans are coming off a shameful loss to the Minnesota Vikings. They only could muster up a touchdown in response to the Vikings 30 points.  Many sports writers and talking heads have even began to wonder if the Titans could be the worst team in the NFL.
Kenny Britt is rumored to be returning by Thursday and this is good news to the Titans offense as it gives Matt Hasselbeck a reliable target.
There is a lot to gain for both these teams in this game. The Steelers are 2-2 and want to make that split record a winning one by going over the Titans. The Titans really need this victory to get momentum going back their way and to get people excited about Titans football again.
The Titans are the obvious underdogs in this match-up and the sportsbook at betonline.com agrees. The moneyline for the Titans is at +200 to the Steelers -240. The point spread is currently at 5.5. The over/under is 42 points.
The game starts at 8:25 p.m. ET on the NFL Network.
