Week 14 betting preview: Steelers now 10.5-point favorites vs. Raiders

Despite the expected absence of James Conner in Week 14 when the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Oakland Raiders, the bookmakers remain confident the game will be an easy win for the Steelers.

From an opening spread of 11.5-points, a consensus line of 10.5-points is still available as of Friday morning. However, while Oakland may only have won twice in 2018, Pittsburgh has consistently struggled in road games against them and have not won there since 1995. The Steelers lost in Oakland in both 2012 and 2013, years in which the Raiders went 4-12 both times and Mike Tomlin is 2-3 against them since taking control of the team.

An early totals position of 49.5-points was quickly replaced by a line of 51.5-points by Monday and there has been no change to that position at the time of writing. Even without Conner in the lineup, the over is still good value, with the Raiders giving up an average of 30.6-points a game this season.

Originally priced at -588 outright to win the contest, -565 is the best price currently showing, although most sportsbooks have the moneyline set at -700.

According to Oddsshark.com, Pittsburgh is 5-2-1 against the spread in their last eight games and 6-5-1 ATS overall on the season. The total has gone under in four of the Steelers last five games on the road and the over is 7-5 so far in 2018. Pittsburgh is 2-4 ATS in their last six games versus the Raiders in Oakland and the total has gone under in five of the Steelers last seven games on the road against them.

Without Conner, Pittsburgh are missing one of the two players who have scored the first touchdown for them in all but three games this season and we will be looking for team’s other prolific opening scorer to step up in his absence on Sunday. Antonio Brown has scored the first touchdown three times times so far this year and he can be backed at prices of around 4/1 for the game’s first touchdown and around 5/2 for first team touchdown this week.