Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh’s attack is guided by QB Kenny Pickett, but he’s injured and is out of the game. As a result, QB Mason Rudolph takes over the starting role in this match. He has an interesting pair of WRs in Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Still, they will need their ground game with RB Najee Harris to improve, in addition to the offensive line doing an interesting job to open up spaces in this match.
The defense has been a pretty average unit, but very poor against the run game. This will be important throughout the season due to the opponent’s possession time which could be above their average in games against Pittsburgh.
Cincinnati Bengals
We know they won’t have QB Joe Burrow. With that, QB Jake Browning will have WRs Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd to carry this attack. The core of this attack is about the running game for me. The aerial attack will work, but the ground game is essential to not leave the team one-dimensional. RB Joe Mixon has not been an excellent player, but he is a good runner. He will need help from supporting RBs who will need to step up.
The defense has changed little and I don’t believe it is a great unit. Despite this, they have players like DE Trey Hendrickson and SS Daxton Hill who are great players. The problem still lies with the LB line, who despite being good tacklers have problems being able to cover the average pass, which will be a big problem for this match.
Conclusion
This is a very interesting game as we have a better team in the Bengals visiting the Steelers, which is a team that has a very interesting trend about them in this game and should be used whenever available. Head coach Mike Tomlin is one of those who best prepares his team to play when they are underdogs at home. He has about a 78% handicap coverage rate when this happens.
I’m in favor of this trend in this game even with the Steelers putting QB Mason Rudolph on the field as the best bet in the game.