Sitting at 4-2 on the season after a thrilling 24-17 win over the Los Angeles Rams on the road in Week Seven, the Pittsburgh Steelers are rolling right along, winners of two straight while getting rather healthy on both sides of the football.
They are riding high after storming back to beat the Rams and now enter a key stretch over the next three weeks with three straight home games at Acrisure Stadium against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers.
First up is Jacksonville on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Jaguars have won four straight games and sits a 5-2 on the season. The Jaguars have won four games in the last 19 days, with two of them coming in London. Now, they hit the road for a matchup with the Steelers, a matchup that NFL.com’s Adam Schein believes that the Steelers need to win more than the Jaguars.
It’s still rather early in the season, but at 4-2 and taking on a top-flight team in the AFC, a win would do wonders for the Steelers, and Schein believes they need it because they have “zero margin for error” right now in the AFC North.
“The Jaguars are rolling, having won four straight, thanks to some great, tough play from Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne’s nose for the end zone (he’s scored two touchdowns in each of his past three games). But we just saw T.J. Watt and the Steelers hold Matthew Stafford below 50 percent completions on Sunday,” Schein writes regarding Sunday’s matchup between the Steelers and Jaguars for NFL.com. “Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett and offensive coordinator Matt Canada, meanwhile, mounted back-to-back scoring drives in the fourth quarter of the comeback win, in which Pittsburgh reached the 300-yard mark on offense for just the second time this season.
“I’m a big Pickett backer, and while I was encouraged by his effort in Week 7, I think he and Canada need to seize the opportunity to build on the momentum they gained against the Rams. They should be able to unlock another level in this attack, now that Diontae Johnson is healthy and catching passes opposite George Pickens. The Jaguars have a fair amount of leeway in the AFC South, with the Texans being the only other team without a losing record. The Steelers, meanwhile, have zero margin for error in the AFC North, where they are scrapping for position with three other playoff contenders.”
In the win over the Rams, a lot of good happened for the Steelers on both sides of the football, particularly offensively. It’s well-known how good the defense is, but what the offense did in Week Seven in the fourth quarter was quite remarkable: 23 plays, 190 yards, 11 first downs, two touchdowns.
Second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett looked great in the final quarter, completing all seven passing attempts for 138 yards, while the run game had great balance and really wore down the Rams.
They have to build off that, and it starts in Week Eight against the Jaguars at home, a tough team with a great defense and a young offense loaded with playmakers, not to mention a special teams unit that is rather aggressive.
It’s hard to call a Week Eight matchup a must-win at this point in the season, but Schein believes it’s a big game for the Steelers, one that they have to have to keep pace in the AFC North. Fortunately for the Steelers, the AFC North teams in the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens all have tough road trips and matchups on tap for Week Eight.
Cleveland heads to Seattle, Cincinnati heads to San Francisco and Baltimore flies to Arizona to take on the Cardinals. There might not seem like some margin for error in the division for the Steelers right now, but they’re in a great spot early in the season, are seemingly starting to find their game and get to return home for a three-week stretch.
