The Steelers’ 28-24 road upset over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday did more than give them a strong mid-season edge on their chief rival.
The 7-0 Steelers surged afterward in all kinds of futures odds betting, to the point that — with Super Bowl odds ranging from +550 to +600 — they trail only the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in how Pennsylvania online sportsbooks size up teams’ chances of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February.
Pittsburgh also leapfrogged Baltimore by a huge bound in odds to win the tough AFC North, and the team is being given a far more credible chance to go the entire season undefeated, even if that remains unlikely.
Things couldn’t have started any better or more unexpectedly for a team that before the season carried ample uncertainty from missing last year’s playoffs and relying on a 38-year-old quarterback who missed all but two games in 2019 due to elbow injury.
They were supposed to be pretty good, not this good
At season’s start, the Steelers were deemed above average, with a wins projection of 9 to 9.5 based on the over/under win totals offered by the sportsbooks. But the sites all agreed, by making their Super Bowl odds 25/1, the franchise was hardly destined for its seventh NFL title.
Week by week, win by win, the Steelers’ odds have improved, to where Caesars and the Kambi-backed sites (DraftKings, Unibet, BetRivers, PlaySugarhouse, Barstool, Parx) now have them +550. FanDuel and FOX Bet make Pittsburgh +600.
Most of the sites list Kansas City at +350, while Caesars is using +400. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+600 to +700), Seattle Seahawks (mostly +800, but +475 from Caesars), and Ravens (+750 to +1000) are behind.
That’s after the Steelers’ odds improved only modestly week by week, win by win, even as they endured as the NFL’s only undefeated team after impressive wins over the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans. A road victory as 4-point underdogs against a Baltimore team coming off a bye week, with its only prior loss against the Chiefs, earned a whole new level of respect.
Here’s how FanDuel, the state’s most popular betting site, has shifted its Super Bowl odds for the Steelers during the season:
| Date | Steelers record | Super Bowl odds |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 11 | 0-0 | 25/1 |
| Sept. 25 | 2-0 | 18/1 |
| Oct. 16 | 4-0 | 13/1 |
| Oct. 30 | 6-0 | 9.5/1 |
| Nov. 3 | 7-0 | 6/1 |
Finally, they’re viewed better than the Ravens
It took that win over Baltimore for the Steelers to jump ahead of the Ravens in the AFC North odds, even though Pittsburgh has had a one-game edge in the standings for most of the season.
A week ago, FanDuel had the Steelers +120 to win the division and the Ravens -125. Now it has the Steelers -320 and Ravens +240. That is the best price someone wanting to bet the Steelers to win the division can get now, as FOX Bet puts their odds at -333 and the Kambi sites post -335.
A month ago, when the Steelers were 3-0 and the Ravens 2-1, the Pennsylvania team could be bet at +210 to +215 to remain ahead by season’s end.
Undefeated season seems unlikely, but …
While no team has gone undefeated through the regular season since the 2007 New England Patriots, multiple sites are acknowledging the possibility for the Steelers to do so — and those odds improved substantially with Sunday’s win.
FanDuel puts the Steelers’ chances of nine more consecutive wins at +1200, while posting -3500 for a “no” bet on their remaining undefeated. DraftKings has +1100 for yes/undefeated, and -2500 for no. A week ago, FanDuel made an undefeated season +2500 and DraftKings had +2000.
It’s not like the Steelers have a tough schedule ahead. Their next three games are against the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, and Jacksonville Jaguars, teams with combined records of 5-17-1. They could conceivably be 10-0 going into a big Thanksgiving night rematch against Baltimore, but in Pittsburgh this time.
After that, the Steelers host the Washington Football Team and Indianapolis Colts while visiting the Buffalo Bills, Bengals, and Browns. The Steelers will be favored in most of those, if not all.
By comparison, the Chiefs—- whom the Steelers are now competing with to earn the one AFC postseason bye available in the revamped playoffs — have a tougher schedule ahead. They have four road games against teams with winning records: the Las Vegas Raiders, Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins, and New Orleans Saints.
As of Tuesday morning, the sites had not yet posted odds for Sunday’s Steelers game vs. Dallas, most likely due to uncertainty over the Cowboys’ situation at starting quarterback.
