Steelers vs. Dolphins: 3 deciding factors that will shape the outcome of the game

The Pittsburgh Steelers are heavy favorites over the Miami Dolphins this week. Here are three factors that will shape the outcome of the game.

Even as a 2-4 football team, it’s hard not to think that the Steelers will easily take care of business against one of the NFL’s weakest opponents on Monday Night Football. However, let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.

Miami may be an 0-6 football team with nothing to play for but the top draft choice in 2020. Still, it’s important that the Steelers don’t underestimate them. Here are three deciding factors that could shape the outcome of the game:

Unpreparedness

If something doesn’t go right for the Steelers, it’s easy to chalk it up to unpreparedness. But this is oftentimes used as a copout when things don’t go the way we expect them to. However, we have seen unpreparedness by Mike Tomlin’s teams in the past.

Last year was a perfect example of this when the Steelers traveled to play the Raiders in a matchup that most expected them to win. Pittsburgh showed an equal level of unpreparedness in the first game of the season in 2018 when they turned the ball over 6 times against the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers will have to make sure they don’t estimate the Dolphins heading into Monday night.

Turnovers

As we have seen in games earlier this season how turnovers can be the difference between winning and losing. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, they were part of a rare statistic of team who lost a game despite taking the ball away five times on defense (I am, of course, referring to the 49ers game).

Turnovers have the ability to change a game faster than anything else. If Pittsburgh is careless with the ball on offense, they could allow the Dolphins to stick in this game much longer than they should.

Offensive execution

This is yet another cliche term, but we have seen what a struggling offense looks like when they fail to execute plays. James Conner hasn’t been able to get anything going on the ground this year, and he is currently second to last in yards per carry among all starting NFL running backs.

The passing game for the Steelers has been equally concerning. Despite the win over the Chargers before the bye, Pittsburgh was able to muster up just 132 yards through the air – just 30 of those coming from wide receivers. There is a real issue that needs to be resolved on offense, and if Pittsburgh can’t find a rhythm against the Dolphins, they could be in for a long night.

Obviously, we expect the Steelers to come out and take care of business on their home turf on Monday night. But we have seen Pittsburgh lose too many of these games they are supposed to win. If the Steelers can control these three factors, they will advance to their third win of the season.