The 2023 NFL regular season has come to a close, and despite the offensive ineptitude for the vast majority of said season, the 10-7 Pittsburgh Steelers punched their playoff ticket with a 17-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens and a Jacksonville Jaguars loss to the Tennessee Titans. Up next? A road date with the 11-6 AFC East champion Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
It will be a matchup of wildly different offenses statistically. The Bills average the fourth-most yards per game in the league at 374.5, 20.3 yards behind the third-place Detroit Lions, and 26.8 behind the number-one Miami Dolphins. The Bills have also scored the sixth-most offensive touchdowns, 54, only one behind the Ravens and seven behind the joint leaders, the Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers.
By contrast, the Steelers rank 25th league-wide in yards per game with 304.3, 8.5 behind the Washington Commanders and 3.9 above the Denver Broncos. The Steelers are also tied for the fifth-fewest offensive touchdowns at 31 with the Titans. That’s one behind the Atlanta Falcons and two above the New York Giants. It’s only nine more touchdowns than the worst-scoring offense in the league this season, the New York Jets. So based on that knowledge, it’s easy to understand why Chris Brockman said that he expects the Steelers to get blown out on Sunday during Monday’s episode of the Rich Eisen Show.
“Every year, now that they have expanded to seven teams in each league, that seven seed is usually garbage,” Brockman said. “Steelers are garbage. They’re going to go to Buffalo and get smacked. It’s not going to be pretty.”
The numbers get even worse when you compare the passing game. The Bills have the seventh-most passing touchdowns in the league with 29, one behind a three-way tie between the Dolphins, Lions, and the Minnesota Vikings. The Steelers have 13 passing touchdowns, tied for second-worst in the league with the Carolina Panthers and only two more than the Jets, the worst in the league.
However, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been different with Mason Rudolph under center for the last three weeks. The Steelers scored 30 or more points twice in that span which had not happened this season to that point. The offense just feels different in a good way with its third different starter this season (how many teams can say that?)
So will the Steelers get blown out? Neither Rich Eisen nor the third member of the show crew thinks so. After T.J. Jefferson disagreed with Brockman’s statement, Eisen spoke up as well.
“I disagree too,” Eisen said. “I think it’s going to be a game.”
Also, the Steelers have allowed the sixth-fewest points as a defense in 2023 with 324, one point less than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and nine points more than the fifth-place Dallas Cowboys. That number is much more important to the Steelers’ style rather than points scored. CB Joey Porter Jr. is preparing to follow Bills star WR Stefon Diggs on Sunday, and it won’t be the first time Porter has shadowed (and helped shut down) the opponent’s top wide receiver.
You can watch the entirety of Eisen and Brockman’s discussion of the Steelers’ playoff chances below, including their conflicting thoughts on whether one-and-done is horrible.
