Steelers entering a lose/lose situation against the Dolphins on Monday Night Football
By Tommy Jaggi
The Steelers host the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. Here’s why Pittsburgh is in a lose/lose situation this week.
It doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the Steelers are heavily favored against the Miami Dolphins in their Week 8, primetime showdown. Even with just two wins under their belt, Pittsburgh currently sits as 14 point favorites over Miami, courtesy of The Action Network.
Nearly everyone is expecting the Steelers to walk away from this contest victorious. In fact, 98 percent of NFL experts chose Pittsburgh over Miami this week, according to NFL Pick Watch.
However, it’s for these reasons and more that put the Steelers in a lose/lose situation against the Dolphins.
The Steelers would obviously be ridiculed if they somehow dropped this game to a team whose ownership probably doesn’t even want to win at this point. That pretty much goes without saying.
We have seen how sluggish Pittsburgh can look coming out of the bye week under Mike Tomlin. Since 2014, Tomlin’s teams have given up 26.0 points per game following the bye week, and are 2-3 over that span. Coming off the bye week in 2017, the Steelers almost lost to a 4-12 Colts team lead by Jacoby Brissett in his 9th start with the team.
If Pittsburgh loses this game, they will probably deserve the comments about to come their way. This brings me to my next point: Even if the Steelers win they could ‘lose.’
That’s not to say that they won’t advance to 3-4 on the season and rise above the Cleveland Browns in the AFC North standings. However, people are expecting a blowout performance. The Steelers are capable of delivering this, but if they don’t, fans are going to be wondering what went wrong.
The Steelers have a number of factors going their way for them tonight. They are playing at home during a primetime game, they have had two weeks of rest, several players are returning from injury, they are playing perhaps the worst team in football, and a handful of Miami players (including 2-time Pro-Bowl safety Reshad Jones) won’t be suiting up tonight.
If Mike Tomlin wants to convince the general public that Pittsburgh is more than just an average NFL team, he needs to deliver a blowout performance in order for fans to be satisfied.
Next. Steelers vs. Dolphins: Why Pittsburgh is set up for success on MNF. dark
It’s important to remember that this is still NFL football, and any team can win on any given game (look at the Jets upsetting the Cowboys, for instance). Still, it’s likely that anything less than a two-score victory over the Miami Dolphins would be deemed a disappointment. The Steelers are in a lose/lose situation here. Let’s hope they come out firing on all cylinders.