Football betting favors Pittsburgh on Sunday as they host the Oakland Raiders. It will be the 18th regular season meeting between the Raiders and Steelers but the first since 2006. The Steelers are double-digit NFL betting favorites against Oakland in this Sunday matchup.
Football betting has the Raiders leading the all-time series 9-8 and the Raiders won the last meeting three years ago 20-13. Oakland is not having a good season this year and it has been a long while since the Raiders were any good. They are more competitive with Bruce Gradkowski at quarterback though and they have a chance to stay within the NFL betting number in this game.
Pittsburgh is expected to get starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger back for this football betting matchup against Oakland. Roethlisberger missed last week’s loss to Baltimore but head coach Mike Tomlin expects Big Ben at full strength on Sunday. “We’re not anticipating him having headaches this week,” Tomlin said. “But if he does, of course, we’ll act quickly.” In last week’s football betting loss, the Steelers had to go with third-string quarterback Dennis Dixon and although he played well, he did throw an interception in overtime that cost Pittsburgh the game. Dixon will remain the backup for at least a couple more weeks since second string quarterback Charlie Batch is still out.
Most people will be looking to the Steelers in football betting against the Raiders. There is just not much to like with Oakland in NFL betting. The Raiders are 16-37 in football betting in their last 53 games in December and 1-7 vs. the football betting odds in their last 8 games in Week 13. One of the few positives for the Raiders is that the underdog in this series is 5-1 in football betting in the last 6 meetings.
Pittsburgh has been very good in December in football betting. The Steelers are 12-5 vs. the football betting number in their last 17 games in December and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 home games.
Four of the last five Oakland games have gone under the football betting total. Seven of the last ten Raider games overall have gone under. On the other side, Pittsburgh has gone over the NFL betting total in 18 of their last 25 games vs. AFC teams. They also have been going over at home as 48 of their last 72 home games have gone over the football betting line.