Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are in second place right now in the AFC North division with a 5-2 record. The only reason they’re second in the division at this point is because the Bengals who are also 5-2 beat the Steelers in week 3. The loss against the Bengals could definitely come back to haunt the Steelers down the road. The one thing that the Steelers can look forward to right now is the chance to beat the Bengals in a couple weeks. If they can tie up the match-up then they will have a good shot at winning the division, but if they lose to the Bengals again they might be in trouble.
This coming week the Steelers have their bye week although I’m not sure they really want it right now. The team has gone 4-0 in the past 4 weeks and they have been on a role. They have beaten the Chargers, Lions, Browns and most notably the Vikings last week. I really think that the Steelers will be able to pass the Bengals in the AFC North this year and win the division, but anything is possible.
The Steelers have always been known as a defensive style team and it has worked for them. They won the Superbowl last year with good defence and they’re looking to repeat this year. One good sign this year is that the offence has been picking things up. They still need to score more points per game, but they are near the top of the league in yards gained per game. Pittsburgh has been averaging 23.9 points per game which is good for 14th place in the league and averaging 383 yards per game which happens to be 7th best in the league.
Ben Roethlisberger has a QB rating of over 100 to start the season and he has also been completing an impressive 70+% of his passes. The Steelers have been rushing the ball this year with several RB’s including Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhall and Mewelde Moore. Mendenhall has been a big surprise for the team this year and he actually leads the team in running. Rashard has 418 yards and 4TD’s on the season, but what is even more incredible is that he has been averaging 5.4 yards per rush.
As every online football betting pro expected, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes are leading the Steelers passing game. Ward has 42 receptions for 602 yards this season while Holmes has 30 catches for 497 yards. With the two explosive WR’s it has opened up the field a bit for TE Heath Miller. Miller has 40 receptions for 353 yards and 4TD’s on the season. If Big Ben can continue to find Miller open downfield it is going to help the offence put up those much needed points.
With the injury to Troy Polamalu this season it has hurt the Steelers defence quite a bit. Troy has since returned to the line-up, but when he was missing the defence looked a bit lost on the field. The defence only has 5INT’s on the season and 2 of those interceptions came from Polamalu. The defence is still in the top 10 for most categories though, including points per game, rush yards per game and overall yards per game.