Thursday Night Football Preview New England Patriots @ Pittsburgh Steelers: NFL Best Bets and Props

We break down the Week 14 Thursday Night Football game and go over everything you need to know for your fantasy and gambling needs.

Last week we had an extremely exciting game, especially if you started any fantasy players. We watched the Dallas Cowboys take down the Seattle Seahawks in a shootout. The scoring started immediately and it never stopped. Unfortunately, that won't be the case this week when the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football. A total of 76 points were scored last Thursday night. The over/under in tonight's game is 30. This is going to be an ugly one that we will all have to suffer through together. 

Week 14 Thursday Night Football Best Bets  

Quite frankly, we don't even know where to start here. If you can avoid starting any fantasy options other than D/ST in this game you're probably better off. Nevertheless, we will do our best to talk about who may give you some value tonight. Even if we are using the word value loosely. 

We can start with the Patriots who are now missing their top three play-makers in an already horrific offense. We saw Kendrick Bourne go down earlier this season and now the Pats have also lost Rhamondre Stevenson and Pop Douglas. It's not like the Patriots' quarterbacks can get anyone the ball anyway, but they'll be rolling with DeVante Parker, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton as their top options in this one.

Hunter Henry will also be serving as the TE1 with Mike Gesicki losing more snaps with each passing week. Bailey Zappe is also expected to start over McCorkle Jones, who mercifully for the fans finally appears to be benched permanently. We can keep this really simple and say just bench them all. Not one player in this passing attack should be in your lineup or even on your roster. 

However, there is one fantasy option you can start from New England and it's Ezekiel Elliott. Do we expect him to be spectacular? No, of course not. Nevertheless, he should see a ton of volume. It's realistic to believe that he will play more than 85% of the snaps and see in the area of 30 touches in this game. The Patriots have no other choice but to lean on him with Stevenson out and the shortcomings of their passing game. This isn't an upside play, but the volume will be there.

On the other side of the ball, the Steelers are a bit more intriguing despite the loss of Kenny Pickett. We will have to endure Mitch Trubisky, who is terrible in 90% of his starts and we don't expect a good one going up against this defense. Still, the weapons on the Steelers' side of the ball are simply more talented. There are two players in particular that we like in this game. Those players are running back Jaylen Warren and wide receiver Diontae Johnson.

Warren could be in the same position as Zeke, seeing a massive workload with Najee Harris potentially sidelined. Harris is dealing with a knee injury and was not able to practice at all this week. He's not a lock to miss the game, but he's looking like he's on the wrong side of questionable this week. Johnson has been the wideout that Trubisky favors when he's in at quarterback. While he's still a risky play if you are going to start a wideout in this game, he's the guy.

Pat Freiermuth can also be considered at tight end if you need him. When it comes to Harris and George Pickens we aren't touching them this week. The only option we love this week though is Warren if Harris is ruled out prior to kickoff. 

We expect a low-scoring defensive battle in this game. Not the good kind of defensive battle though. While the defenses are very good, the bigger issue is that the offenses are so incompetent. The only way this game gets close to hitting the over/under is if the defenses provide points which is very possible. Still, between two bad offenses, there is one that we believe is clearly the worse of the two. 

The Picks

New England Patriots +6 (-112)
Pittsburgh Steelers Moneyline (-258)
Over/Under U30 (-115)

Player Props of the Night

Prop #1: DeVante Parker, Over 36.5 Receiving Yards (-120)

As bad as this passing game is, we still think they can get their best wideout to 37 yards. This is the prop we are least confident in of the three, nevertheless, we do believe he'll get there because someone has to catch a few passes down the field. 
 

Prop #2: Ezekiel Elliott, Over 15.5 Receiving Yards (-115)

This prop we are very confident in. Zeke will see a ton of targets in this game and we expect him to catch north of five passes. If that does prove to be true, it doesn't take much to reach 16 yards. We anticipate him being the top option in this offense no matter how depressing that may be in 2023. The volume will be there and so will 16 receiving yards. We wouldn't be shocked at all if he leads this team in receptions tonight.
 
 

Prop #3: Mitch Trubisky, Over 0.5 Interceptions (-145)

This prop doesn't feel like it needs much of an explanation. It's Mitch Trubisky going up against the Patriots' defense. We all know he's going to throw an interception. He's played one full game this season and threw two TDs. It would be shocking if he didn't get picked off by one of the best defenses in the NFL.