Steelers Chief Monday Night Football Preview

After a slow start to this season the Pittsburgh Steelers look like they're kicking their game into gear.

The Kansas City Chiefs, meanwhile, look like contenders for the title of “worst team in the league.”

So it's an apparent mis-match as the Steelers and Chiefs get ready to do battle on this week's edition of Monday Night Football (8:30 pm ET, ESPN).

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To set this game up;

Pittsburgh started this season by losing three of its first five games. The Steelers lost at Denver, beat the Jets, blew a lead and lost at Oakland, nipped Philly and then gave up another lead and lost at Tennessee.

But since then Pittsburgh has won three games in a row, topping Cincinnati 24-17, Washington 27-12 and, last week, rallying from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Giants in Jersey 24-20.

So at 5-3 Pittsburgh sits in second place in the AFC North, a game and a half behind first-place Baltimore.

The Steelers also own the six seed in the AFC standings at the moment.

Kansas City, on the other hand, has been a disaster right from the start of this season. The Chiefs opened with bad losses at home to Atlanta and at Buffalo, then went to New Orleans and fell behind 24-6.

But a couple of big plays got the Chiefs back in the game, and they eventually beat the Saints in overtime 27-24.

Since then, though, its been all downhill for Kansas City, losing by 17 points to San Diego, by a field goal to Baltimore, by 28 to Tampa, by 10 to Oakland and, 11 days ago, 31-13 to the Chargers.

Statistically speaking Pittsburgh leads the league in total defense, allowing just 263 YPG.

KC, meanwhile, ranks 16th in offense at 358 YPG, and third in rushing at 150 YPG. But the Chiefs also “lead” the league in turnovers, by a large margin, with 29.

As far as the betting on this game goes most NFL betting shops opened the Steelers as favorites of around 11 points. But as of Monday morning Pittsburgh was lined at -13 at many outlets.

So far this season NFL double-digit favorites are 11-1-1 straight-up, but only 6-7 vs. the pointspreads.

Also, home teams on Monday night are only 5-5 both SU and ATS this season.

The OVER/UNDER on Monday's game sits at a nice round 40.

These teams last met last November, when the Steelers went into Arrowhead Stadium and came away with a 13-9 victory. Pittsburgh outrushed and outgained KC that night, and forced four Chiefs turnovers, but couldn't cover the spread as 10-point road chalk.