Morning Coffee: Steelers, Browns brace for ugly weather on Thursday Night Football

The Pittsburgh Steelers have defied expectations and proved their doubters wrong once again this season.

When you consider who’s calling the shots from their sideline, their success starts to make a little more sense.

Mike Tomlin has earned a reputation for squeezing every ounce of potential from his roster and putting his players in position to shine.

Tomlin’s brilliance has played a crucial role in the Steelers winning five in a row and eight of their first 10 games.

Nobody is surprised by the fact that he’s the favourite to win NFL Coach of the Year at FanDuel this morning.

Pittsburgh’s regular season win total was 8.5 at FanDuel.

The Steelers can clinch the over with a win over the rival Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football.

While Pittsburgh and Cleveland have trended in opposite directions through the first 11 weeks of the season, Tomlin has made it clear that his team isn’t overlooking another tough challenge on the road against a division rival on a short week.

There’s also the potential for the weather conditions in the area to cause some severe disruptions.

We’ve already seen the potential weather impact lead to a major adjustment on the total for Thursday Night Football.    

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday November 21st, 2024.

Steelers, Browns Brace For Ugly Weather On Thursday Night Football

The Steelers have won and covered five straight games.

That’s the longest streak in the Tomlin era.

Pittsburgh is tied with the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Chargers for the best ATS record in the league at 8-2.

The Steelers are a combined 18-9 ATS over the last two seasons – tied with the Lions for the NFL’s best ATS mark.

The spread for Thursday Night Football got as high as Pittsburgh -4.5 at FanDuel before settling at the current number of -3.5.

The biggest adjustment has been to the total, which has come crashing down from 41.5 to 36.5 at FanDuel.

The forecast is calling for a steady mix of rain and snow with freezing temperatures and the potential for significant winds throughout the entire game tonight.

With both teams bracing for the inclement weather on a short week, it looks like we could be in line for a classic brand of ugly AFC North football that is decided in the trenches.

In terms of a FanDuel Best Bet, I was trending towards locking in Najee Harris over 15.5 rushing attempts this morning with an expectation that we’d see a ton of volume for the Steelers franchise running back.

When I sat down to write this column, I noticed that FanDuel had Harris’ rushing attempts prop at 16.5.

I published the following post on my X account.

Several other books had already moved the number to 17.5 rushing attempts for Harris.

Additionally, their numbers were juiced to the over.

I locked in Harris over 16.5 rushing attempts as a FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday Night Football anticipating we would see that number climb.

Hopefully, you follow me @Domenic_Padula on X and turned your notifications on to jump on that number.

As I wrap up this column, Harris over 16.5 rushing attempts is still available at FanDuel.

He’s gone over that number in four straight games with at least 18 carries in all of them.

With some terrible conditions in store tonight, I expect that trend to continue.

My FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday Night Football is Harris over 16.5 rushing attempts.

I’ll also lock in a Same Game Parlay with Harris 50+ rushing yards and the alt under 46.5 at -120.

Harris has gone for 50+ in five straight games and should be in line for another busy night in Cleveland against a defence that has struggled to stop the run.

Hopefully, the Steelers feature running back can deliver tonight in a low scoring game.

Have a great day, everyone!