This duel in Week 1 of the preseason will go down Friday, August 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. ET at Heinz Field.
NFL Odds at BookMaker.eu
Detroit Lions +3 ( +100 )
Pittsburgh Steelers -3 ( -120 )
Over/Under 35.5
ODDS ANALYSIS
Home field advantage usually means a bunch in the NFL preseason, and not surprisingly, we've got a very vanilla betting line here with Pittsburgh favored by just the value of home field advantage plus a few vig points. The Steelers are set at -3 with -120 vig alongside a relatively average total of 35.5.
QUARTERBACK ROTATION
Jim Caldwell's history suggests that the Lions are going to use Matt Stafford for one drive on Friday night before turning the ball over to the backups. Dan Orlovsky and Kellen Moore played the mass majority of the opening game last season. Moore is now with the Cowboys, so he won't be the third quarterback in the fold, but this game could end up being a big one for rookie Jake Rudock.
Many believed that Rudock was going to be picked higher in the NFL Draft than he was as a sixth rounder, and this is going to be his chance to impress. He's got a big arm for sure, and he was certainly better as a senior at Michigan when he threw for 3,017 yards and 20 TDs than he ever was at Iowa.
The Steelers have a history of not caring about the preseason all that much, and we can't imagine we're going to see any of Ben Roethlisberger in this game. Big Ben didn't play in Pittsburgh's first preseason game last year, giving way to Landry Jones instead who went from start to finish.
Jones probably won't go the whole way in this one, but we would bet that he'll get most of the reps. Dustin Vaughan will also likely make his team debut. Bruce Gradkowski could get some reps, but the vet probably won't be in for long either since he knows this offense inside and out.
COACHING HISTORY
Last year wasn't a good one for the Steelers in the preseason. They were blown out in the Hall of Fame Game, dropping Mike Tomlin to just 16-21-1 ATS in his coaching career in the preseason.
Caldwell is thought to have this awful history in the preseason from his time with the Colts, but here as a member of the Lions, he hasn't been all that bad. Last year, Detroit covered three of its four exhibitions. Most notably, all four games stayed under the total, albeit by relatively close margins in all four.
QUICK PICK
The Steelers notably have a lot of question marks at the running back spot, but we think they're going to take real advantage of the fact that they have some experience behind Le'Veon Bell even if he isn't going to be in this game very long, if at all.
The Lions are trying to get tougher this year, and that's going to start with the ground game and playing stout ball up front. This team brought in a ton of rookies along the offensive line, and that could be bad news late in this game when it comes to scoring.
Even though totals in preseason games have gone up quite a bit over the course of the last few years, this one strikes us as a relatively old school game where three touchdowns might ultimately be all that is scored. If that turns out to be the case, the under is absolutely the right side.
NFL Odds: Lions 17, Steelers 13
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