Will it come to another defence battle?

“The defence is dead, long live the defence” is the motto for Sunday’s match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots – and for several reasons. First, of course, because of the Steelers’ injury problems after the first day of play.

T.J. Watt, the heart of their defence, was injured so badly that he will now be out for 6-8 weeks (pectoral muscle injury). With Kazzee and Joseph, two safeties on the IR list, the defence is additionally weakened.

The Patriots, on the other hand, don’t have such a deep breakdown and yet their defence performed far below normal against the Dolphins. Well, the offense was even a little weaker on the road, but we’ll get to that later.

In any case, Sunday’s game now seems very difficult to evaluate. So for Steelers vs. Patriots, our prediction is a very mixed matchup, leaning towards sub-par scores. We don’t expect there to be a clear winner here.

Kickoff of one of the early Sunday games of NFL Week 2 is at 7:00 pm on Sunday in Pittsburgh. The game can be watched live on ran.de and on DAZN.

Pittsburgh Steelers – Statistics & current form

The Steelers won their first game against the Cincinnati Bengals. However, you could ask every single person in charge and they would all answer that they would have preferred to lose it, but T.J. Watt wouldn’t have gotten hurt for it.

Because that was pretty much the worst-case scenario on the Steelers’ side. Even an injury to their quarterback wouldn’t have been that bad. Because now they’ll be without their best pass rusher and Defensive Player of the Year for about half the season.

How good is the Steelers defense without Watt?

While the feared pectoral muscle tear has not been confirmed, even 6-8 weeks without Watt could be tough with the playoffs in mind. Without him, the defence not only lacks the pass rush it needs, but also the clear mental leader.

We can well imagine that Pats quarterback Mac Jones could take advantage of this a time or two on Sunday. The question remains, does he do it often enough? Because basically, the Steelers are the better team this season.

Trubisky demanded

So there will be a bit more pressure on starting quarterback Mitch Trubisky again this weekend. The defence can’t win the game alone, so he’ll have to put up more than one touchdown in the Steelers’ still very manageable running game.

Speaking of the running game, it hasn’t improved much so far this season. The Steelers managed just 75 yards against the Bengals, 36 of which came from wide receiver Chase Claypool alone. The running back unit around Najee Harris was once again completely up in the air.

Another point that makes betting on this game difficult. Two banged-up offenses and now defenses meet. For Pittsburgh vs. New England, a bet on “No team scores three times in a row” is a good betting option for us. Because we don’t expect too many great offensive actions.

Key Players:
QB: Mitch Trubisky
RB: Najee Harris
WR: Deontae Johnson
TE: Pat Freiermuth
K: Chris Boswell

New England Patriots – Statistics & current form

Nightmare Miami was the name of the game again for the Patriots last Sunday. And the way in which the defeat came about should not make all Pats fans optimistic. Neither the defence nor the offence really got into the game at any point.

Above all, Mac Jones and his offence had a terrible day. They are almost lucky that they won’t have to deal with T.J. Watt next Sunday. He would have taken the Pats’ O-Line apart single-handedly.

No progress visible

While the Pats played a surprisingly strong season under new quarterback Mac Jones last year, that combination looked sussed out on Game Day 1. Miami always knew exactly what Jones was up to, so now it’s also up to the Patriots’ coaching staff to find new ways.

They can’t rely much on the help of the running game in New England, which was as weak as that of their upcoming opponents from Pittsburgh with 78 yards. It would certainly do the whole team good if they would focus on the basics again.

Short passes like in the best Tom Brady times: It was already noticeable that Mac Jones often wanted to force something too much here. If they succeed in making the switch “back to the roots”, then they will be in with a chance against the decimated Steelers on Sunday.

No points festival expected

No matter how we slice it, we’re not expecting any miracles from New England in Week 2. We don’t see them scoring over 25 points by any stretch of the imagination – though neither do the Steelers. Rather, it could come down to an extreme low scoring game.

That makes Steelers vs. Pats under-scoring odds an option. However, we get even better value by betting that no team will score three times in a row. Since we expect a fairly even game, this is certainly an exciting underdog pick.

Key Players:
QB: Mac Jones
RB: Damien Harris
WR: DeVante Parker
TE: Hunter Henry
K: Nick Folk

Pittsburgh Steelers – New England Patriots Head-to-head comparison / H2H record

Six of the last seven meetings have gone to the Patriots, although it should be noted that Tom Brady was still with the Patriots in each of those victories. The two franchises have not met since his departure from New England.

This also means the first-ever duel between Mac Jones and Mitch Trubisky – two completely different guys. Nevertheless, we see Jones slightly ahead, which could actually make the difference in the Patriots’ favour in the end.

So with Pittsburgh vs. New England, a bet on the Pats is a betting option for all those who don’t trust subpar scores. However, they are still a top alternative from a betting base point of view, as both defenses in normal form and despite all the trouble should allow few points.

Pittsburgh Steelers – New England Patriots Tip

At home and with Watt, the Steelers would be easy favourites here. Without Watt, however, the tide turns a little in the Patriots’ favour. Still: We lack the exact clues for win bets here. Therefore, we expect a duel on a knife edge.

All the more reason to focus on other bets. In the case of Steelers vs. Patriots, we recommend betting that no team will score three times in a row. Especially in expected low-scoring games, this bet is a frequently underestimated variant.

Of course, bets on sub-points are also possible. The 40.5 set here was neither scored in the first Pats game nor in the Steelers against the Bengals, if we exclude their overtime.