Both the Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers were expected to have big seasons in 2018. Both lost anticipated contributors to the offense, and both got off to slow starts. But both have come on strong, as they are now very much part of the playoff picture. On Sunday night, the will provide a very attractive matchup for the NBC audience, in again that will begin at 8:20 PM ET at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Remember that if you are a BetAnySports customer, you can watch the game and place wagers on it as it's happening, courtesy of the state-of-the-art software from Live Betting Ultra.

The Steelers (7-3-1 SU, 6-4-1 ATS) were waiting practically all year for Le'Veon Bell to show up, and he didn't. So they have had to turn to James Conner, and all the cancer survivor has done is carve out what could be a Pro Bowl season. Conner has 849 yards rushing and 453 yards receiving, averaging 5.5 yards per touch and scoring 11 touchdowns. And what would you have said if we told you that Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown would not have such a great season together? We're exaggerating a little bit, because Brown does have 71 receptions and is well on his way to another thousand-yard season, but Big Ben's passer rating when throwing to him is 20 points below what it was last season, and the #1 pass-catcher on this squad now appears to be Juju Smith-Schuster, who caught 13 passes for 189 yards in a losing cause against Denver last week, with a total of 1005 yards for the season.

The Chargers (8-3 SU, 6-5 ATS) got a monster day put of Philip Rivers last week, as he completed 25 consecutive passes during a 45-10 rout of the Arizona Cardinals. For the season, Rivers is just under 70% and averaging 9.1 yards per passing attempt. However, Melvin Gordon, one of the better all-purpose backs in the league, has been ruled out of this game with an MCL sprain.

In the Sunday night football betting odds posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, Pittsburgh is the favorite at home:

Pittsburgh Steelers -3 (-115)
Los Angeles Chargers +3 (-105)

Over 51.5 points -110
Under 51.5 points -110

The loss of Gordon may change the dynamic of the Los Angeles offense, which has gotten closer to real balance that it has in years, because head coach Anthony Lynn, someone who loves the ground game, has been able to get positive results out of Gordon. In fact, the Bolts have run the ball 43.4% of the time. How much will that change now? It's an important question to ask, because the Steelers lead the league with 39 sacks, and if Rivers abandons the rushing attack, he may find himself more vulnerable to the pass rush they usually is (he's been sacks just 19 times, by the way).

An interesting participation here will be second-year running back Austin Ekeler, who has quietly snuck in there and made his mark. Ekeler, an undrafted free agent out of Western State, is averaging 5.8 yards per carry and has 32 receptions. If he becomes the work horse in this particular game, will be Chargers' ground attack be downgraded at all?

Speaking of the pass rush, Joey Bosa recently returned to the lineup for Los Angeles and had a pair of sacks last week against Arizona. Suffice it to say that the Pittsburgh offensive line is going to be a tougher proposition for him, as they lead the league in Adjusted Sack Rate. In other words, Big Ben is likely to have time to throw. And since Rivers, possibly an MVP candidate, may go back to his natural instinct to fill the air with footballs as well, we might feel more comfortable, rather than taking either side here, with going OVER on the total.

BetAnySports adds a lot of excitement to your Sunday night football betting action. First of all, there's reduced juice, which gives you better odds before the opening whistle. And with Live Betting Ultra, you can place wagers in real-time throughout the contest…… If you haven't signed up yet, you need to. And keep in mind that you can use your Visa card, person-to-person transfers (like Western Union) or the virtual currency of Bitcoin, which is fast and easy with their automated system, and NEVER incurs a transaction fee!

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