Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers

Betting Odds

Point Spread: Steelers -3 (-10)
Game Total Line: (37)
(wagering lines available at 5Dimes)

Baltimore (13-4, 9-7-1 ATS) destroyed Kansas City 30-7 last week. The Ravens have won five straight games, covering four of them.

The defense is firing on all cylinders. Baltimore has allowed just 24 total points in its last three games. The Chiefs mustered a pathetic 161 yards of offense in last week's Wild Card game, not to mention being victimized for three sacks and five takeaways. Besides a 41-yard touchdown run by Jammal Charles in the first quarter, Baltimore completely shut down the Chiefs' attack.

Joe Flacco enjoyed his best NFL playoff game. He was solid if unspectacular, completing 25 of 34 passes for 265 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. Flacco also scrambled several times, either for first downs or to buy time for his receivers. Todd Heap was particularly impressive, catching 10 balls for 108 yards. The ground game was disappointing, though, with Ray Rice averaging just 3.4 yards per carry. He definitely won't find much room to run against Pittsburgh.

The Steelers (12-4, 10-6 ATS) should be well rested after a bye week. Pittsburgh is 6-1 since getting thrashed by New England in mid-November, and the team has covered ofur of its past five outings.

After a prolonged slumber, the offense has seemingly woken up, scoring 27 and 41 points in its last two games. That's a little deceiving, though, as the explosive performances came against Carolina and Cleveland. Though Ben Roethlisberger isn't dominating like years past-shoddy protection has had a major hand in that-he's playing mistake free football; Big Ben has four touchdowns and zero interceptions in his past four starts.

Pittsburgh has looked fantastic on the other side of the ball. The Steel Curtain has allowed an opponent to top 20 points just once in the past seven games (and one of the touchdowns came on a kick return); Pittsburgh is allowing just 10 points per game in that span. The Steelers own the NFL's best rush defense. Against the pass, they allowed the fewest plays of 20-plus yards in the league.

This head-to-head series has been amazingly close. All but one of the last eight games have been settled by six points or less. Pittsburgh is 5-3 in those games, including 4-3-1 ATS. They split their two meetings this season, with each team winning on the road by a field goal. The total went under in both of those games. BetED.com has set the total for Saturday's match up at 36.5 points.

Point Spread Pick

Last 5 in this series have been decided by 3 points which has us playing the Ravens. Take the Ravens +3 at 5Dimes on game day for reduced juice betting!