Good morning everybody, the simple handicap for Tuesday, December 5th.

Thank you for making me a part of your morning.

Hopefully your Tuesday is off to a fantastic start as we head forward to NFL week

number 14 with week 13 behind us in the rearview mirror kicks off

Thursday night with the New England Patriots on the road at the Pittsburgh Steelers

who will be starting Mitchell Troupiskey under center as Kenny Pickett has ankle surgery and looks to be out up to four weeks is the initial

Anticipation total in this game opens 35 all the way down to a flat 30. Yes you heard that right. 30 points is the

total in this regular season game lowest total do we have seen in the last 30 years lower than the Saints

Browns game a couple of seasons ago which had 40 plus mile per hour wins.

This is not a win game. This is going to be a game that is played as usual in week 14 of the regular season.

We might see 10 to 12 mile per hour wins, but usually nothing to justify a total this low outside of the fact

that we have a Patriots offense that cannot move the football. And so not only have I

not seen a total this low for a regular season game, I have not seen a defense, disrespect

an opposing passing offense as much as what I saw the chargers do looking back at some of the highlights as well as

checking in with some of the film guys who cover the league. The way that the

chargers were playing their safeties relative to the line of scrimmage

against the Patriots in the week 13 game

was absolutely hilarious.

I've never seen anything like it.

I mean, first down, not only were they playing press outside they had both of their

safeties within eight yards of the line of scrimmage consistently throughout

the game and you think about the Pittsburgh Steelers and how they play defensively may very well be looking at that and deploying a similar strategy because the Patriots from an injury perspective have guys from the skill positions all over the initial injury report on a Monday,

...