Steelers three keys of the week vs. Dallas Cowboys

Steelers need to begin with a hot start

If there was a tale to tell of the 2020 Dallas Cowboys other than Mike McCarthy is the head coach, QB Dak Prescott fell to a season-ending injury, or them trotting out the upside-down version of the Steelers defense, it would be the early, extreme deficits they have acquired in nearly every game.

What appears as hope only being found next April for their organization, the first halves for the Dallas Cowboys have not been pretty, and that’s saying it lightly. In the games that Dallas has trailed entering halftime, it has been by an average margin of 16.6 points. In only two of these weeks has the Cowboys been able to dig themselves out of these holes, being their only two wins on the seasons that both came with Prescott*.

*Prescott was injured halfway through the third quarter vs. New York Giants (week 5)

Since then, the Cowboys have failed to score more than nine points in any first half of any game, in which two of their opponents were their fellow NFC East counterparts. For Pittsburgh, on the other hand, they have notched 17 or more points in three of their last four games, with all opponents being above .500 but one.

Numbers that perfectly align the stars embedded on the Steelers’ helmets, Pittsburgh can essentially put this game to rest after the first 30 minutes if they perform as they should.