Tampa Bay Bucs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, 9/24/18 Monday Night Predictions

Bucs vs. Steelers Spread Prediction

The Pittsburgh Steelers are off to a slow start in 2018, tying the Browns in Week 1 and dropping their home opener to the Chiefs last Sunday. Will they get in the win column on Monday night when they visit the red-hot Tampa Bay Bucs?

Game Snapshot

489 Pittsburgh Steelers at 490 Tampa Bay Bucs

8:15 p.m. ET, Monday, September 24

Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

Public Betting Trends

According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Bucs are 1-point favorites to beat the Steelers. The total, meanwhile, sits at 54 points. As of this writing, 60% of the public betting tickets are on the Bucs to cover the point spread.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers RT Marcus Gilbert (hamstring) is a game-time decision for Monday night against the Bucs. Gilbert didn't practice this week, but there’s hope he can make enough progress to be active. With RG David DeCastro out, the Steelers may push Gilbert to play at less than 100 percent.

Tampa Bay Bucs

Chris Godwin (toe) is expected to play in Week 3 against the Steelers. Godwin's toe injury was never considered to be anything serious, and Auman noted the second-year pro "looked fine" when media watched him in practice. Godwin will still likely get slapped with the 'questionable' tag when the Bucs release their injury report. Consider him probable for Monday night against the Steelers.

NFL Betting Trends

Pittsburgh

The Steelers have now dropped five of their last six games against the spread in the month of September.

Tampa Bay

The Buccaneers have covered the spread in five straight games and are 7-3 at the betting window in their last 10 games coming off a win.

Prediction

This is an opportunity to take the team playing the better football at a discount. The Bucs, who have been the more impressive team through two weeks, are only a 1-point home favorite against the Steelers tonight? Thanks. Ben Roethlisberger has terrible road splits compared to his home stats, Le’Veon Bell is still holding out and Antonio Brown didn’t even show up for work last Monday. Oh, and the Steelers haven’t been the same defense since Ryan Shazier suffered that tragic injury a year ago.

At some point, Ryan Fitzpatrick will turn back into a pumpkin and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Jameis Winston in Tampa. That said, he’s on fire and facing a Steelers defense that looks overmatched. Tampa Bay doesn’t have a great defense either, so this should be a shootout. Still, I’ll take the better team playing at home in primetime.

 

NFL Week 3 Prediction: Tampa Bay Bucs -1