The Steelers are looking to extend their perfect record, but here’s what they must do in order to beat Washington.
Despite a long-week of waiting to finally play Baltimore after COVID-19 setbacks, the Steelers should have been able to dominate the Ravens both offensive and defensively with ease. One of the reasons I was concerned about this game or any trap games I mentioned recently was all the miscues and little things that could happen that determines performance in every game, it is a lesson all players are taught when beginning to play tackle football. Feel free to reread my post on where the Steelers need to go after going 8-0 at the halfway point of this 2020 season.
Dropped catches, botched returns, missed routes, missed coverages, turnovers, and having extra players on the field were examples where the Steelers had things go wrong, and history has shown in the past where we had been expected to win by a landslide, but barely squeaked it out. Out of the 11 games played so far, the point differential has been around +12 which ranks us at #1 in the league, though one scoring drive by the opponent and they’re right back in it. But the good news in all of this is that we are still able to clinch ballgames and it is a statistic among the greatest teams in NFL history to overcome mistakes and still come out with the big win.
Are Steelers about to fall into a ‘trap?’
Because of close, but losing records for all teams in the NFC East, the upcoming game against Washington is an already-called trap game that I know the Steelers may fall into, they are in a midst of clinching the division so Washington has more to play for than Pittsburgh. Moreso, they have been riding on emotions with the return of Alex Smith after an almost career-ending and life-threatening injury and witnessing coach Ron Rivera overcoming Lymph node cancer.
To avoid this situation, here are a few strategies that Pittsburgh should follow to avoid any failure. Case in point over the last several seasons where teams tried to go undefeated, they lost to teams that are from the Eastern divisions such as the Giants defeating the Broncos in 1998 and the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, the Jets defeating the Colts in 2009, and the Cowboys defeating the Saints in 2009.