NFL Week 7 preview: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

This week we have the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Cincinnati Bengals. Only the fourth time ever. Two quarterbacks on the wrong side of 40 getting together. The three other times all happened in 2020. Tom Brady, Drew Brees. The Steelers favored by 5 a half at Cincinnati. Cincinnati have been double digit underdogs pretty much every week lately. It’s only five and a half with an overunder of 44.5. We have both picked the Steelers to win every week this season. Now, the upset trend in prime time is real. And I was on 937 The Fan yesterday in Pittsburgh and they said Mike Tomlin has never won a short week road game. Wow. Ever. Wow. So, that’s a factor as well. Who do you have? Well, I I do have the Steelers, right? But because of that, you know, your prime time and and not even prime time, but more of the Thursday night. Thursday night to me is just odd. We’ve talked about it a lot. Yeah. It’s just it’s not a normal week. All right. So, I certainly pick Pittsburgh to win the football game. Yes, I’m going to do that. But, I mean, we know about Pittsburgh’s offense. First off, I don’t think it’s that explosive that it’s really going to blow anybody out right now at this point. It’s going in the right direction. I like that, right? But what I do get scared of is Joe Fla Joe Flacco and he has no conscience. That that’s what I get scared of. And that we’re not we’re still at a Pittsburgh defense that I don’t know is functioning at a high high level yet. It’s also like the offense getting better, but do I think there’ll be some holes there for Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and Joe Flacco to throw a few little uh you know some lasers down the field to make a few big plays. Yeah, that’s what kind of scares me. Or late in the game, you know, one team takes their foot off the gas pedal like we saw the Bengals with the Packers last week and then they get some late touchdowns, right? My my big thing here is that scares me. Flaco to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins big plays. The other thing that just scares me, like Pittsburgh’s offense needs to come out and and be aggressive and kind of squash the mentality of the Bengals right away and kind of be like, “No, no, we’re here to play. Yep. It’s Thursday night. We’re going to be a little aggressive, too, here.” And take the will out of them, but I don’t know if they’re capable of that. I’m going 2724 Steelers here, so I’m going to have the Bengals cover. Same here. 24-20 Steelers. And I could see 2413 with a late touchdown. Bengals. We’ve seen a lot of that garbage time action from the Bengals in recent weeks. I think it got them the cover against the Packers, but not against the Lions. It was close though. And the Lions game, the final scores look better than maybe the flow of the game would suggest. And you know, the Steelers are rounding into form. They’re becoming contenders. The short week is a factor. I don’t know that Aaron Rogers is going to be distracted by the fact that the next game is against the Packers. I don’t think he cares about that. This is just about short week. Get it together. Go get a win. One fact about the Steelers defense that surprised me, and this comes from the NBC Sports research notes that go out every Wednesday, and there’s always a lot of good stuff in there that become posts at PFT. The Steelers have three straight games with five or more sacks. They have never gone four games in a row with five or more sacks since team sacks became a stat in 1963. So, all those teams of the 70s never did what the Steelers can do tonight. Four straight games with five or more sacks. They had three sacks total the first two weeks. They’ve got 17 the last three games, all wins. I think it’s enough for the Steelers to get to five and one and and really continue this conversation that we started yesterday of what moves they should maybe make as the trade deadline approaches to to get not just, you know, it was all in, let’s get to the playoffs and win a playoff game. Now it’s let’s go all in because maybe we can we can go deep into the playoffs, right? Yeah, I I hear you. I’ll be interested too because like we were talking about yesterday, it’s there to be had in the AFC right now. There’s no one team you can look at and just go, “Oh, this team and that team are another level above everybody else.” And therefore, that’s why I think we’re maybe headed towards one of the more exciting trade deadlines we’ve ever seen because there’s so many teams that could probably have that feeling this year. Yo yo homies, it’s time to watch some games. That’s right, we’re on to the NFL season here with Chris Sims Unbutton. Hit subscribe to get our weekly pick, Sunday night recaps after every game, and much, much more. Thanks for watching. Peace out, homies. Remember, subscribe. Peace out.

The upset trend in primetime seems to be real, and Mike Tomlin never has won a short-week road game ever, though Mike Florio and Chris Simms are picking Pittsburgh to win but the Bengals to cover in Week 7 in Cincinnati. #NBCSports #NFL #ChrisSimmsUnbuttoned
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NFL Week 7 preview: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC
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16 comments

  2. As a lifelong Steeler fan at 60 years of age, this is the exact type of game that the Steelers will lose. However, Aaron Rodgers is the X factor that could change that.

  5. Tomlin is absolutely awful on TNF mainly bc he's too stubborn to adjust.
    Just like when he can't adjust mid-game when his game plans don't work, he does the same prep and approach on TNF.
    There's reason why he's 2-9 (0-6 in division play) on TNF. And why there's no improvement the following years on TNF.
    So what makes you think he's going to do anything different this time around? It'll be same unprepared team. Bet the Bengals +5

  11. Classic talking heads…. You are overthinking this. Bengals tape is clear their D is not talented AND the browns of all teams dumped Flaco, so no he won’t beat the Steelers ANY day of the week stop this crap. Steelers by 16.

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