The 2 most-popular Thursday Night Football bets show how low expectations are for Steelers-Patriots

We have certainly seen better Thursday Night Football games than the Patriots-Steelers tilt tonight, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t several interesting gambling angles to the game.

The Steelers are currently 5.5-point home favorites against the Patriots, with a total of 30. That total would be the lowest in the NFL since a 2006 divisional playoff game between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears, according to ESPN.

One oddity is that at BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel sportsbooks, there were more wagers on the total than the spread. This is a rarity, as in almost every NFL game, there are more bets on the spread than the total. At DraftKings Sportsbook, 80 percent of bets and total dollars wagered were on the total, as of Thursday afternoon.

Something I don't remember ever seeing in an NFL game:

The most-bet "player" by total wagers (15%) AND total $$ (18%) to score 1st TD in Patriots-Steelers on #TNF at @DKSportsbook is No TD scorer at 14-1 pic.twitter.com/eXimt2ZzKX

— Ben Fawkes (@BFawkes22) December 7, 2023

Another bet in conjunction with bettors not thinking there will be much scoring is the first touchdown scorer market. At DraftKings, the “player” with the most total bets (15 percent) and handle (18 percent) is “no touchdown scorer” at 14-1 odds. This bet would only cash if there is no touchdown scored throughout the entirety of the game, something that very rarely happens in an NFL game.

Will we see more scoring than public bettors think?

You’ll have to tune in tonight to find out.