Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3-1 and currently the 4th seed)
The Steelers are a tricky team to put your thumb on. When you watch them, they show flashes of pure brilliance, like when Ben Roethelisberger was being hit in his own end zone and delivered a perfect strike to JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 97-yard house call last Sunday in Denver.
Then they show you flashes of pure “I’m not sure who this team wants to be” moments. An example of that was when they had second and goal from inside Denver’s five yard line driving to tie the game and force over time.
The play called was some sort of play action jump pass that was never set up correctly and Big Ben, doing what he’s done more often than not in big games, he just tossed it up into the soft hands of a 300 pound defensive lineman in orange.
The Steelers have dealt with a ton of drama all season long, starting with Le’Veon Bell, but it seemed as if they were hitting their stride midseason with James Conner. Their defense has also become more stingy and they’ve had a ton of success inside Arrowhead Stadium over the last couple years.
This is a team that, when its on, can score with the best of them and they’re certainly not scared to play in a big spot, on the road in Kansas City. We’ll see how they respond this week when they host the Los Angeles Chargers.