The New England Patriots will play the Pittsburgh Steelers on NFL Thursday Night Football tonight as the NFL 2015-2016 regular season gets underway. Tom Brady will be playing for the Patriots after his suspension was overturned on appeal, and that should be a massive boost for New England. Tonight's game has a scheduled start time of 8.30 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the NBC network, or online through live stream via the link below.
The New England Patriots will be looking to claim a seventh straight AFC East title this year, and just weeks ago it looked like they might struggle as their star quarterback - arguably the best player in franchise history - was suspended for the first four games of the season in the aftermath of Deflategate.
However, in the latest twist in the Deflategate saga, Brady's four game suspension was wiped out on appeal, and that leaves him - for the moment - to wreak havoc on opposition NFL teams.
That news will have disappointed New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and Buffalo Bills fans, who may have thought that four games without Brady would open the door for one of them to steal away the division title this season.
All three of those teams have made offseason acquisitions, however, now that Brady is back the Patriots will again be massive favorites for the AFC East.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be hoping to put a dent in those division title hopes for the Patriots tonight though, and it is no secret that they will be putting most of their eggs in their offensive basket.
The Steelers have arguably the best offense in the NFL, and with players such as Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell they will be tough for any defense to stop.
Bell though will be missing for two games, and Martavis Bryant will be out for four, and that will blunt their threat somewhat. When those two are back though, fans can expect the Steelers to have an offensive unit that could easily put 30-plus points on any team.
However, they may well need to score more than 30 points a game, as their defensive weaknesses are likely to be targeted by opposition teams. In particular, the back end of the defense looks very concerning, and this may well be a transition year for the Steelers' defensive unit, and that just might undermine the damage this team can do in the league for this season.
Tonight's big NFL Thursday Night Football game between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers has a scheduled start time of 8.30 p.m. ET and can be watched online through live stream by clicking here.
