The Atlanta Falcons didn’t so much win their Sunday Night NFL Football game against the Chicago Bears as much as the Bears lost it. A series of costly mistakes and turnovers in the red zone negated an otherwise solid road effort for the Bears, as Atlanta held on to win 21-14 at the Georgia Dome. Chicago held a decisive edge in most of the statistical categories, but was undone by untimely turnovers.

Chicago also disappointed fans who bet on NFL football by failing to cover the pointspread as +4 road underdogs. Both teams’ ATS records match their straight up records with the Falcons moving to 4-1 against the number while the Bears slumped to 3-2.

Winning Falcons’ QB Matt Ryan chose to credit his defense rather than point to Chicago mistakes as the determining factor in the outcome:

“Our defense, give them some credit. Our guys stepped up and made some plays when we needed them to.”

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The Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves an unlikely ally in an all too close road game against the Detroit Lions: the fans. With Steelers’ fans at times appearing to outnumber Lions’ supporters, the Steelers got a late game boost from their enthusiasm. On the field, Ben Roethlisberger threw a season high three touchdown passes as the Steelers survived by a final score of 28-20. Pittsburgh improved to 3-2 with the victory, while Detroit dropped to 1-4.

NFL betting enthusiasts who backed the Lions as +11 home underdogs were rewarded with the pointspread cover. The Lions have covered two of their five games this season, while the Steelers slumped to 1-4 against the number. Its a longstanding pointspread trend for the defending Superbowl champion to underperform against the number and particularly in the early part of the season.

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