Blitzburgh Pick’em: Week 9

This week the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2) will be visiting the Cincinnati Bengals (2-5) for a Monday Night Game. The Steelers are coming off a tough loss to the Saints last week, while the Bengals lost to the Dolphins last week. Steelers will try to get back on track while the Bengals need a win to try to save their season. After the jump are our writer’s opinions for the game.

Bam:

The Steelers have played very well during MNF football games the past several seasons. Also: the Bengals suck. I’d like to see the Steelers turn this into a statement game of sorts and play a great 60 minute game on all fronts. I don’t think that will happen, but with any luck we’ll get to see something close to that. The Bengals are going to be playing inspired because it’s a home game in primetime to “save” their season. They’ll at least hang around for a while.

Steelers 31 Bengals 17

Brian:

Aside from last year, the Steelers more or less own the Bengals. T.O. is their big receiver threat now, which is a shame, because it was always watching Ike Taylor blanket Chad Eightfive twice a year. The offense with T.O. is more dangerous, but there’s no way the rest of the team holds up. Steelers win a game that isn’t exciting enough for Monday night.

Steelers 28 Bengals 10

George:

Here are the rankings for both teams according to Football Outsiders and Advanced NFL Stats:

Except for Football Outsiders rating the two teams similar on offense (keeping in mind this includes the weeks without Ben), the two sites have the Steelers as the better team in every facet of the game, as well as overall. Unlike last week, there’s no disagreement on the quality of defense the Steelers are facing: it’s poor. The Football Outsider premium picks like the Steelers, though not too much, while Advanced NFL Stats gives the Steelers a 77% chance to win.

I think this will be another close game. The old saying is “throw stats out the window when it comes to division matchups”, and while I of course won’t go that far, I do think the Bengals will come to play, and could pull off an upset similar to the Browns last year. That being said, I think the Steelers are more likely to come out on top.

Steelers 27 Bengals 21

Matt:

This is an important Monday night game for both teams. The Bengals come into this game with the season on the line. They can’t afford to go 2-6 in the AFC North. This game has significance for the Steelers because they are not only trying to right the ship after their loss to New Orleans, but they are also trying to keep pace with the Ravens who moved to 6-2 this week.

I think this game, like most on Monday Night this year, will be boring. I think the Steelers will dominate on the defensive side of the ball, and I think Ben will be able to shred the Bengals secondary. It’s going to be boring because once the Steelers get a good two score lead…look for Mendenhall to carry the load and kill the clock.

By the way, T.O. and Ochocinco will be non-factors. I just can’t wait to see them pout on the sidelines.

Steelers 31 Bengals 16

Below are the Staff Picks for the rest of the games this week.

STAFF PICKS

Bye Week: Broncos, Titans, Jaguars, Redskins, Rams, and 49ers.