NFL Regular Season Finale – Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Miami Dolphins

Two teams clinging to faint playoff hopes duke it out in a game that NFL handicappers will be chomping at the bit to get a piece of come Sunday afternoon. The Pittsburgh Steelers (8-7, 4-10-1 ATS) will need a victory to have any hope of defending their Super Bowl crown when they take on the Miami Dolphins (7-8, 8-7 ATS).

Pittsburgh needs a win and losses by three of the four of Baltimore, Denver, Houston, and New York to get into the postseason. Miami can still sneak in if all four of those teams and Jacksonville go down in Week 17.

The oddsmakers have lined the defending champs as three-point favorites, while NFL handicappers will have a ‘total’ to dig into of 45.5.

Back-to-back victories over Green Bay and Baltimore at home have at least righted the ship for the defending champs, but that dastardly five-game losing streak really did them in on the year. The health of SS Troy Polamalu is still up in the air, as he might be able to give it a go for the first time in months on Sunday afternoon.

QB Ben Roethlisberger may feel like he was snubbed out of the Pro Bowl this year, as he threw for 4,108 yards and 23 TDs on the year. He is clearly one of the most valuable quarterbacks in the league, as he successfully kept his team together at times when everything else seemed like it was falling apart.

Though the defense is still putting up respectable numbers (305.5 yards and 20.0 points per game), it just isn’t nearly as dominating of a unit as NFL handicappers are used to seeing out of the black and gold.

Miami’s season probably effectively came to a close at home in a 27-20 loss to the Texans in Week 16. The Fins fought valiantly from a 27-0 deficit to score the game’s final 20 points, but the hole was just too deep to dig out of. Miami bettors still have a lot to look forward to for 2010 even if the ’09 season doesn’t end according to plan. QB Chad Henne definitely looks like the quarterback of the future, as he could reach the 3,000-yard plateau in a year where he was thrust into action due to the injury of starter Chad Pennington.

RB Ricky Williams also looks like he has found his legs again after RB Ronnie Brown went down with a season-ending injury several weeks ago. The former Texas Longhorn has rumbled for 1,090 yards and has accounted for a team-high 13 TDs on the year.

The last time that these two teams met was that ugly 3-0 game in the monsoon where the punt stuck straight into the Heinz Field grass on a Monday night in 2007. This game won’t be nearly as ugly as that one was, but the ‘under’ seems like the right side regardless. Pittsburgh’s defense just has to show up in this game for it to have any chance, and it’s hard to see how an offense that was shut out for the majority of two quarters against Houston is going to survive against the blitz packages of the Steelers.

Rose’s Recommendation: 2* Pittsburgh Steelers/Miami Dolphins Under

Rating Scale 1* – 5*