CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco offered thorough breakdown of the 2018 NFL season, going through a game-by-game prediction of the entire year, playoffs include. In it, he believes the Pittsburgh Steelers finish the year with a 10-6 record, not great, but good enough to comfortably win the AFC North.
Here’s how he predicts the division.
Steelers: 10-6
Bengals: 8-8
Ravens: 7-9
Browns: 5-11
And weekly predictions for the Steelers.
Week 1 – 16-13 win vs Browns (1-0)
Week 2 – 30-21 win vs Chiefs (2-0)
Week 3 – 28-21 loss to Buccaneers (2-1)
Week 4 – 23-20 win vs Ravens (3-1)
Week 5 – 28-27 win vs Falcons (4-1)
Week 6 – 23-21 loss vs Bengals (4-2)
Week 7 – BYE (4-2)
Week 8 – 26-23 win vs Browns (5-2)
Week 9 – 39-38 loss vs Ravens (5-3)
Week 10 – 30-20 win vs Panthers (6-3)
Week 11 – 31-30 loss vs Jaguars (6-4)
Week 12 – 20-19 loss vs Broncos (6-5)
Week 13 – 31-29 win vs Chargers (7-5)
Week 14 – 38-30 win vs Raiders (8-5)
Week 15 – 37-36 win vs Patriots (9-5)
Week 16 – 38-33 loss vs Saints (9-6)
Week 17 – 27-24 win vs Bengals (10-6)
Talk about raising the blood pressure of Steelers Nation. I know their games inevitably end up close but all 16 games are within 10 points and an astounding ELEVEN within a margin of three points. Compare that to only six such games in 2017.
It apparently gets crazy late in the year with shootout thriller after shootout thriller, though to me, reversing the Ravens/Steelers score from 2017 is a little cliche.
That comes out to 448 points scored on the season, a nice and tidy 28 points per game in Randy Fichtner’s first season. And a not so nice 422 points allowed (only one game holding a team to under 20 points?), or an average of more than 26 per game and enough to probably get Keith Butler shown the door.
In Prisco’s universe, the Steelers make the playoffs as the #4 seed. They narrowly defeat the Denver Broncos during Wild Card weekend, 21-20, before losing in the Divisional rematch against Jacksonville, 25-20. Jacksonville goes on to beat New England in the Title Game before falling to the Packers in the Super Bowl, 27-20.
To his credit, that’s a ton of work for an admittedly meaningless exercise. Again, check out the whole prediction at the link here.
