The Steelers start their playoffs this Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. While this season has been a roller coaster of extreme highs and extreme lows they are still in a very good position to be able to win the AFC North division, provided they can leave Cincinnati with a victory. Putting the bad offensive and defensive performances of the last few games behind them, now the Steelers must move forward and face a Bengals team that has been leading the division most of the season. The Steelers have little margin for error after dropping last week’s game at home to the New Orleans Saints, however, their 6-3 conference record still leaves them in the hunt as part of six teams at 7-5 vying for playoff position. What do the Steelers have to do to ensure victory on Sunday in Cincy? You’re going to see some reoccurring themes here for sure.
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Ben Roethlisberger vs. Andy Dalton: Ben has to be the better quarterback
Roethlisberger is without question the best quarterback in the AFC North. He’s quite possibly the best quarterback under pressure and he’s going up against one of the worst quarterbacks under pressure. However, when Andy Dalton has time to throw, he can make himself look like a way more competent than he really is. Roethlisberger has been frighteningly good when he’s been accurate this season. His accuracy has taken a dive over the course of the past few games, whether it was a confidence thing and he was either over confident and thought he could make throws he couldn’t really make or his confidence was shaken thinking that he couldn’t possibly keep up the 6-TD’s a game performances. Whatever happened he needs to shake the funk off and get back to being in the undisputed leader of the AFC North quarterbacks.
Finish drives in the end zone
The Steelers have had some slow starts end up biting them in the ass later on and none more evident than last week at home against New Orleans. The offense began the game moving the ball down the field quite effectively but, ended up settling for field goals instead of touchdowns. Once the Steelers offense got going for real, the Steelers defense was unable to stop the Saints offense to save their friggin lives. If it has to end up being a shootout, the Steelers can’t afford a slow start. The Bengals have the best record in the AFC North, but the reality is the only team with a winning record they’ve beaten is the Ravens, and they beat them twice. This isn’t an insurmountable team the Steelers are going up against. They need to finish their drives in the end zone if they want to take control of this division.
More Le’Veon Bell
I have a fever, and the only prescription is more Le’Veon Bell. Ok that was cheesy and I’ve already used it before but it needed to be said again. The Steelers don’t need to worry about scaling back Bell’s workload right now, especially against the Bengals. The Bengals rank 25th in the league at stopping the run and while it’s true that during their current three-game winning streak they haven’t allowed a 100+ yard rushing performance, they haven’t exactly gone up against amazing backs during that streak either. When they won against the Houston Texans, Adrian Foster did not play and last week when they barely pulled out the victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they have no one rushing the ball down there either. So it’s not like they’ve all of a sudden figured out how to stop the run. Bell can have a field day on this defense and the Steelers might just need him to in order to win and get a step closer to the playoffs.
Here we go Steelers! Here we go!