Washington Football Team vs. Steelers Week 13 preview
By Ian Cummings
Washington defense vs. Pittsburgh offense
This is where the silver lining lies for the Washington Football Team, although even that comes with an asterisk. Washington’s defense has been good this year. We’re at a place where we can say that, at least.
But even then, Washington’s best games have, to this point, come against the most vulnerable opponents. Last week was a bit of an exception, as the Dallas Cowboys team they faced on Thanksgiving was better than the Cowboys team they faced before the bye week. But nonetheless, Pittsburgh is a much more competent squad, and even if their offense isn’t quite to that level.
Even then, Pittsburgh’s offense has the potential to put up numbers against Washington, if Washington lets them. Chase Claypool, Juju Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and Eric Ebron are all offensive threats worthy of attention, and if Washington leaves a big play open, Roethlisberger still has the aptitude to hit it, even in the late stages of his career.
With that being said, however, the passing offense hasn’t been as efficient as of late, as Roethlisberger has averaged just over five yards per attempt over the past two weeks. The Washington Football Team’s best chance might be to keep this game close, in order to keep the passing attack on the field, because once the Steelers start icing it with James Conner, it’ll be hard to catch back up.
Kamren Curl will be especially big in locking down the underneath routes that Roethlisberger has been fond of; yards-after-catch could doom the Washington defense if they’re not careful. If Curl and the linebackers can work on clamping down the short-to-intermediate ranges, that might force Roethlisberger to test the deep range, an area he’s been less comfortable and more volatile in as of late.
The Steelers’ offense has its weaknesses, but Washington will have to exacerbate those areas of weakness by exerting constant pressure via Chase Young and Montez Sweat, and staying aware on the second and third levels. If there was ever a game where Ron Rivera might wish for his defense to ascend from good to great, this would be it.