Time\/Date: <\/strong>8:20 PM EST, September 25, 2011 When NBC put this game on their schedule before the season started, they certainly would have hoped that Peyton Manning was starting at quarterback for Indianapolis. As it turns out, the Colts are in a state of disarray without Manning. The Steelers were crushed in week one, but they bounced back with a big win last week. Can the Colts play inspired football in front of a national television audience and give the Steelers a tough game this Sunday night?<\/p>\n Ben Roethlisberger, like many of the other Pittsburgh Steelers, had a very rough week one. He played a solid game last week as the Steelers blew out the Seahawks. Mike Wallace has clearly become Big Ben\u2019s top target on the outside. Wallace has 16 catches and 233 yards receiving in just two games. Rashard Mendenhall has turned into a reliable running back for the Steelers. The biggest problem that the Steelers offense has right now is the continued poor play of the offensive line. Roethlisberger is taking too many hits, and the line must improve as the season moves along.<\/p>\n The Pittsburgh defense is definitely one of the best in the NFL. It\u2019s tough to beat a linebacker corps of Harrison, Woodley, Farrior, and Timmons. Troy Polamalu is probably the best safety in the NFL, and he is playing at full strength right now. The defensive line is deep and first round draft pick Cameron Heyward gives them another talented run stuffer. It is very tough to run the football against this front seven. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Kerry Collins was brought in right before the season started to take over the starting quarterback spot while Manning is injured. Collins hasn\u2019t been great, but he hasn\u2019t been a disaster. He has only completed 51% of his passes, but the Colts can\u2019t be upset with the fact that he has only thrown one interception thus far. It certainly doesn\u2019t help that the Colts don\u2019t have much of a running game at all. The lack of firepower that Indianapolis is showing on offense right now is definitely a sign of just how great Manning is, and Colts fans can\u2019t wait to get him back. Reggie Wayne has 11 catches for 172 yards already this year, so he is off to another fast start.<\/p>\n This defense has been a bit of a liability over the last few years, but the Colts absolutely need them to step up now that the offense has taken a big step backward. The secondary is solid and the pass rush is very good, but the front seven is terrible against the run. Indianapolis is allowing 137 rushing yards per game so far this year, and they have been one of the worst run defenses in the league each of the last four or five years.<\/p>\n I\u2019m typically not a fan of laying a lot of points in the NFL, especially on the road, but I can\u2019t see the Colts keeping this one very close. There is huge disparity in talent between these two teams right now. The Steelers should win comfortably here.<\/p>\n Free NFL Pick: <\/strong>Steelers -10.5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1) vs. Indianapolis Colts (0-2) Time\/Date: 8:20 PM EST, September 25, 2011 Venue: Lucas Oil Stadium Broadcast: NBC Steelers vs. Colts Gambling Odds from 5Dimes Spread: Steelers -10.5 Moneyline: Steelers (-510) Colts (+410) Over\/Under: 39.5 When NBC put this game on their schedule before the season started, they certainly would have hoped that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":39272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43837,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43790\/revisions\/43837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVenue: <\/strong>Lucas Oil Stadium
\nBroadcast: <\/strong>NBC
\nSteelers vs. Colts Gambling Odds from 5Dimes<\/strong>
\nSpread: <\/strong>Steelers -10.5
\nMoneyline: <\/strong>Steelers (-510) Colts (+410)
\nOver\/Under: <\/strong>39.5<\/p>\n