Fresh off a bye week, Pittsburgh Steelers fans are excited to see their team play again this weekend. It’s an exciting time to be a Pittsburgh fan with the team leading the AFC North at 6-2 and making some interesting moves ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline. This week, they’re set to take on the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon.
Apparently, that excitement is a shared one, and it includes some analysts at NFL.com. Each week, the league’s official YouTube channel releases a preview video for each game on the weekly slate. At the end of each video, 10 analysts for the network predict both a winner, and the final score of the game. For the Steelers-Commanders predictions, seven of the 10 analysts went with the Steelers.
While the Steelers have certainly surpassed some expectations this season, this is slightly surprising. The Washington Commanders are not the Commanders of old anymore. Led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, Washington’s peddled ahead to a 7-2 record of its own. The Commanders are tied with the Lions for the most wins in the NFC at this point in the season. Before the season began, essentially nobody expected them to be as impressive as they have been.
All of that said, seven of these analysts see a clear way to a victory for Pittsburgh. To their credit, there very well could be. One matchup Pittsburgh can really take advantage of on Sunday is their run game. Najee Harris is on a roll, with the Steelers’ win against the Giants representing his third straight game picking up 100 yards on the ground. The Commanders’ defense has really struggled against the run. Allowing 1,287 rushing yards this season, they’ve given up the third most in the NFL.
While Washington’s offense has been a pleasant surprise this year, the Steelers’ defense is still playing just as well as it needs to. Daniels is already hard to defend, but Pittsburgh’s shown the ability to stifle its opponents several times this year.
Seven out of 10 analysts picking Pittsburgh over a seven-win team is interesting, to say the least. We’ll see if the Steelers end up proving them right.
