Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers are riding high after a two-score victory over the Browns in Week 6. Following the win, they hold a 2.5-game lead in the AFC North and control their destiny, as the rest of the AFC North hasn’t managed a win since the Browns beat the Packers in Week 3.
While the Steelers have built up momentum, Thursday games have been a challenge for the Steelers under Mike Tomlin. Pittsburgh is 9-10 overall on Thursday nights, and 2-8 on the road.
What do the Steelers need to do to avoid a Thursday night disappointment?
Rushing YPG: 56.7 (32nd)
Passing YPG: 178.5 (30th)
PPG: 17.2 (29th)
RP: Unless you’re a new fan, you already have a good idea of what to expect from the Bengals. The premise of their team has been the same since they drafted quarterback Joe Burrow and receiver Tee Higgins in 2020, and later added Ja’Marr Chase in 2021: throw the pill around the yard.
After their Super Bowl run during the 2021 season, this became even more of a focus as the team let their defensive talent erode in order to prioritize paying their quarterback and star receivers. The idea was simple enough: score enough to make the fluctuating state of their defense irrelevant. Ryland will have more on that in the next section.
However, in recent years, the Bengals have become intimately familiar with the old saying “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Burrow has struggled to stay on the field, and the injury bug has bitten him again in 2025. During the second quarter of the Bengals’ Week 2 contest with Jacksonville, Burrow suffered a brutal toe injury that will reportedly see him miss a minimum of three months.
How quickly the Bengals’ house of cards has collapsed.
The offense was off to a slow start with Burrow, and things have only devolved in his absence. Backup Jake Browning was somehow able to gut out a win against the Jaguars, despite throwing three interceptions, but the Bengals have gone winless since. As you’ll note from the stats above, the Bengals are a bottom-four team in passing, rushing, and points scored. That’s less than ideal for a team that’s structured itself to rely on a supercharged offense.
After three abysmal starts that proved Browning wasn’t up to snuff, the Bengals’ hand was forced. They made a surprising intra-division trade with Cleveland to acquire 40-year-old Joe Flacco, a familiar divisional foe who is now just a Steelers stamp away from completing his own personal AFC North bingo card.
The trade seemingly rankled Mike Tomlin, but considering how Flacco has actually performed in the year 2025, the move amounts to little more than a wet fart.
If we look at passing EPA, Browning (-60.6) ranked 32nd out of 34 qualified passers per NFL Next Gen Stats. And what about Flacco? The Browns failed to eclipse 17 points in any of his four starts, and even...
