Caleb Wilfinger
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Week 14 of the NFL season is upon us and we’re kicking off the proceedings with one of the least exciting Thursday Night Football games of the season with the New England Patriots taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots are coming off an all-time low after failing to cover as 5.5-point underdogs in a 6-point home loss to the Chargers last week, while the Steelers were dominated by the lowly Cardinals at home for their 5th loss of the season. If you’re interested in checking in on this old school grinder of a game, the action kicks off at 8:15 pm ET on Amazon Prime Video.
I don’t have a prediction on the side for this matchup, but I do have one particular touchdown scorer bet for the proceedings. Here is my touchdown scorer best bet for Thursday Night Football.
Don’t miss our New England Patriots vs Pittsburgh Steelers predictions for Thursday Night Football
Patriots vs Steelers best touchdown scorer bet: Pat Freiermuth (+400)
I’ll be completely honest: this is not the prettiest game to break down from a handicapping perspective. The total opened at 33 and currently sits at 30, and that still might not be low enough! Therefore, I can’t get there with backing a player from both teams to score a touchdown in what should be an ugly, extremely low-scoring game. What I can get behind is betting on Pat Freiermuth to find the end zone at this number. The Steelers will likely be starting Mitch Trubisky in this game, which doesn’t exactly give me great confidence for their offense. However, I expect Trubisky to target his security blanket in Freiermuth early and often against a rock-solid New England defense.
There’s also the matter of Pittsburgh’s tight end getting healthier in recent weeks, and his performance has reflected as such. Freiermuth had 9 receptions for 120 yards against the Bengals in Week 11 and followed that up with his second-highest reception total of the season last weekend with 3 receptions and (more importantly) 6 targets in a bad-weather game against the Cardinals. This should be a game where if the Steelers do get in the red zone, Trubisky will likely look for his tight end around the goal line on multiple occasions. Let’s go with the Pittsburgh tight end at this 4/1 number.
Check out our Patriots vs Steelers Same Game Parlay at +901 odds
