LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers NFL Week 11 Picks and Odds

LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers Betting Preview

WagerTalk NFL handicapper Andy Lang offers his LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday Night Football betting preview. At the time of posting, the Chargers are a 6-point home favorite over the visiting Steelers, with the total sitting at 47 points.

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LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers Predictions

LA Chargers -6 vs Pittsburgh Steelers
Total: 47 Points
The under is 6-2-1 in Pittsburgh’s games this season.
Dating back to last season, the under is 10-5 in the Chargers’ last 15 games.

The quarterback situation is messy coming into this game as the Steelers come to Los Angeles to take on the Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger should be cleared to play in this game, but based on last weeks line only moving 1.5 points when he was ruled out and Mason Rudolph was named the starter the books are telling us a lot about what they think of Big Ben. Herbert has been inconsistent this year, and three out of his last four games have been below average as he’s thrown for 223 or less in those three games, but the Chargers will need him to be on point to get the win.

Both teams are not exactly lighting it up through the air recently as Pittsburgh is averaging 224 yards passing the last three games, and Los Angeles is averaging 244 their last three games, and this game will probably be close throughout as the strengths of both teams matchup against the weaknesses. The Steelers rank 31st in offense while the Chargers rank 23rd in defense, and on the flip side the Chargers rank 7th in offense while the Steelers rank 11th in defense. Most would think that Najee Harris will thrive against a struggling Chargers offense, but he has not averaged over 4 yards a carry the last five games, and he’s only averaged over 4 yards a carry two games all year. He’s rushed the ball 22 times or more in five straight so if you’re a prop bettor, look at playing Harris over his rush attempts.

The Chargers rushing game has been bad as they’ve rushed over 100 yards a team once in the last four games and that was aided by a 75 yard run by Justin Jackson. So we have two teams struggling in various areas of offense with a Chargers defense that can be exposed in the running game and a Steelers defense who is getting worse at the run each week, but who’s held opposing quarterbacks under 300 yards in every game except one…how do we attack this game from a betting perspective?

The Chargers are 5-4 against the Spread and the Steelers are 3-6 against the spread, so there are no real trends there, but looking at the totals is where we can find value. Both teams are under teams as Pittsburg is 2-6-1 to the under and Los Angeles is 3-6 to the under. One of my favorite trends has been playing first quarter unders for Pittsburgh, and they hit their under again last week against Detroit bringing them to a 7-1 record on betting first quarter unders this season. They have a great recipe for unders as their defense can cause the opposing offense to stumble, and their offense stumbles on their own with their lack of explosion on offense. It if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If the total is 7.5 or higher in the first quarter, take the under…if it’s below that number take the first half under 23 as both teams are a combined 11-5 betting first half unders.

Been an important week for @StevesBook22 and I. Very proud of our work, but we know it needs to go to the next level, and we’ve been putting in a lot of time and thought into how to do that this week. We aren’t aiming to be good…we’re aiming to be the best.

— Andy Lang (@BumpSports) November 18, 2021

LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers Analysis from The GoldSheet

While Ben Roethlisberger’s Covid-related absence figures to be brief, the Steelers and their fans had better hope so after Mason Rudolph could do no better than forge a tie with the winless Lions in his first start of 2021, reigniting doubts if he’s really going to be the man to step into Big Ben’s shoes, perhaps as early as 2022. But we’ll worry about that next season; in 2021, getting Roethlisberger back for this game will be crucial as every competent foe has been exploiting an injury-thinned Chargers defense for the past month…and we’re not convinced Rudolph can do so. Which is why Big Ben’s availability is so important, because the Bolts weren’t able to get their stop unit off of the field long enough to give Justin Herbert and the offense a bit more time to attack in the latest loss last Sunday (vs. the Vikings).

Lastly, we can’t forget the last time the Steelers were the road team against the Chargers, when they might as well have opened a Primanti Brothers stand at the Bolts’ temporary home in Carson with the stadium overrun by Pittsburgh fans two years ago. With about 50,000 more seats to fill at new SoFi Stadium, we suspect the overwhelming majority will be wearing black and gold, likely turning Inglewood into Heinz Field West.

Bet On It

The barking dogs, sandwiches, teasers, and steam plays are back! Join Kelly, Marco, Gianni and Ralph every Wednesday for Bet On It as we discuss the NFL Week 11 slate from a variety of betting angles. We cover this LA Chargers vs Pittsburgh Steelers showdown at the 8:20 timestamp.

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