The Pittsburgh Steelers enter Week 5 as NFL gambling favorites to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, following their, the Steelers’, domination of the Ravens on Sunday. It was not all, however, well among the black and gold. Wide receiver Antonio Brown threw a hissy fit on the sidelines which did not sit well at all with QB Ben Roethlisberger but which, says Will Brinson of CBS Sports, guarantees “a greasy-wheel game out of Brown this week.” Antonio Brown? More like Bobby Brown.
Antonio Brown was not happy on the Steelers sideline. pic.twitter.com/zadJQFqGt2
— Dan Levy (@DanLevyThinks) October 1, 2017
- Date: Sunday, 8th October
- Time: 1:05 PM
- Venue: Heinz Field
- Online Sportsbook Odds for Fans Who Bet on NFL Games Online:
Jaguars +8½ (-110) 43 (-115)
Steelers -8½ (-110) 43 (-105)
Distraction is not a good action
Both Big Ben and head coach Mike Tomlin separately agreed that Brown’s behavior counterproductive. Roethlisberger, for his part, told a CBS Sports Radio affiliate that Brown’s “temper tantrum” is a “distraction” the team does not need, while Tomlin said, at a press conference, that Brown “has to control it. If he does not, it can work against him and can work against us. Those are just the lessons you learn along the way.” At the same time, Joe Starkey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is laying the blame on Big Ben, not for not throwing Brown the ball, but for blowing the whole thing out of proportion. It matters not, all things considered, who stirred the pot; what matters is that the pot has been stirred and the Jaguars may find themselves fishing in troubled waters. Will Roethlisberger feed Brown plenty of balls to appease him or will Big Ben cut him off to teach him a lesson? Who knows? One thing’s almost for sure, though, when it comes to the Steelers, and it’s that the NFL gambling total will go under. The last time Pittsburgh went over the rainbow was the AFC Championship Game vs. New England Patriots back in January.
Good Bortles, bad Bortles
Inconsistency, thy name is Blake Bortles. Bortles, Bortles, bo-ortles, banana-fana fo-fortles
Fee-fi-mo-mortles, Bortles! The Jags have won two games, have won both at home and on the road, but they have yet to string more than one victory together, and it’s simply because they don’t know, any given week, whether they’ll get Jekyll Bortles or Hyde Bortles. “We’re starting to look like a roller coaster,” nose tackle Abry Jones said. “We come out against Houston and were good. Against Tennessee, we fall and against the Ravens we were good. Then we had a bad performance and lose a close game in overtime against the Jets. I don’t like that feeling. I just hope it don’t [sic] affect guys’ confidence.” If the Jaguars were betting men, they could at least be confident that they’d cover. Jacksonville is 4-0 ATS in their last four road games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 against AFC teams, and 5-1 ATS in their last six overall games. The underdog is, moreover, 8-1 against the NFL gambling spread in the last nine encounters betwixt these two teams.