Writers week 4 picks: Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cincinnati Bengals

The second area of concern: Bengal’s passing game

This may be surprising to some, but first-year head coach Zac Taylor’s offensive scheme has Andy Dalton thriving so far in the 2019 season. As of week 3, Dalton was ranked second in the league in passing yards only trailing reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes.

The longtime Bengals quarterback has passed for 5 passing touchdowns while giving up 3 interceptions. Dalton is also one of eight quarterbacks in the league who has already been sacked double-digit times. This is due to a long list of injuries to Cincinnati’s offensive lineman.

Dalton to make mistakes, and putting pressure on him in the pocket should be the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive gameplan. The Steelers defense showed last week, they are more than capable of making plays and forcing turnovers.

Pittsburgh’s edge rushers and defensive linemen should look to all contribute: TJ Watt is the defensive player I expect to have a solid performance. Minkah Fitzpatrick was not the only one with two forced turnovers last week as Watt did as well. I anticipate Watt to come away with a multiple sack performance, while also obtaining a strip-sack as well.

Predicted outcome

I expect Pittsburgh to come out on top in this one with a final score of 28-21. The Steelers should look to win the point of attack on each side of the ball, frustrate Andy Dalton into mistakes, and have their offense come together finally.

If this is the outcome, Pittsburgh will enter week 5 at 1-3 playing the AFC North leader, the Baltimore Ravens. With this being said, here are the rest of the Still Curtain writer’s predictions below. Followed by the team’s predictions is their reasoning for their decisions.