‘Screw the Vegas lines’ — Steelers unfazed by being biggest underdog in half a century
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are not expected to win their next game. At least, they’re seen as unlikely to win Sunday as they have for a game going back to the 1960s.
Fourteen-point underdogs for the upcoming meeting at the Buffalo Bills, ESPN reported that’s the first time since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 that the sports books have given the Steelers that many points in the betting line. The Steelers were the only one of the NFL’s 32 teams to have never faced a line that big over the past 53 seasons.
If what starting center Mason Cole said before practice Wednesday is any indication, the Steelers aren’t fixated on what’s coming out from the oddsmakers.
“I don’t pay attention to what Vegas is saying or what the line is,” Cole said. “They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do.
“In our minds, we’re going to go out and win the game. Screw the Vegas lines. We don’t worry about that, whether we are favorites or underdogs.”
The Steelers won the season opener as a 7½-point underdog at the Cincinnati Bengals (Incidentally, the Steelers also won last season’s opener as a 7½-point underdog — at Buffalo). But they’ve lost outright each of the past three weeks — the first two, as an underdog, but on Sunday as a home three-point favorite against the New York Jets. (The Jets won by four points).
Even accounting for a last-second meaningless touchdown on a desperation lateral play Sept. 22 in Cleveland, the average margin of win or loss for the Steelers this season is 5.5 points. The Steelers’ point differential for the entire season is minus-16.
“You win by two scores in this league, it feels like you blew the guys out,” Cole said. “It seems like every week there are close scores around the league across the board. That’s just the nature of this league and how competitive it is.”
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