Pittsburgh Steelers: How Many Points Can They Score Against the Lions?

The Pittsburgh Steelers barely hung on against the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. The Steelers led comfortably for much of the game before falling apart in the 4th quarter and needing a game-winning field goal drive in the last two minutes.

The Steelers’ offensive struggles have been well-documented over the past two seasons. However, this may be the perfect get-right spot for the Steelers as they go up against a struggling Detroit Lions’ Defense. So are the Steelers a sneaky good pick for BetMGM’s King of the Weekend Promo this week for online betting enthusiasts?

Is the Pittsburgh Steelers Offense Legit?

The Steelers currently have the #25 ranked offense by total points and the 17th ranked offense by DVOA. Despite having a highly talented receiving corps, and an elite 1st round running back in Najee Harris, the Steelers have struggled tremendously due to a combination of quarterback play, play calling issues, and a weak offensive line.

Ben Roethlisberger currently grades out as the 34th out of 35 qualifying quarterbacks in PFF QB grades. As expected, their offensive line hasn’t performed well before the season, with only one player inside the top 30 at his position. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that combing a completely immobile veteran QB with perhaps the worst offensive line in the league is not a recipe for offensive success.

Ultimately, it is clear that this is no longer the same Big Ben, and in turn, it is no longer the same Pittsburgh offense of the Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell days. Instead, this team wins games because it has an elite defense, not offensive efficiency.

The Good News

The Steelers did just put up 29 points against a decent Chicago defense on Monday Night Football. The Chicago defense is not what it used to be, but miles above the 2021 Lions defense. They now get to face a Detroit Lions defense that still ranks 30th in points allowed in the NFL, despite only playing eight games through nine weeks.

This Lions defense has struggled against both the run and the pass all season. Their pass defense took a massive hit when they lost their #1 cornerback Jeff Okudah to a ruptured Achilles in Week 1 against the 49ers. In early October, they also lost their premium pass rusher Romeo Okwara and recently lost rookie cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu.

This has left them fielding a secondary that consists of CB Amani Oruwariye (110th out 117th), AJ Parker (117th), safeties Will Harris (90th out of 91st), Dean Marlowe (78th), and Tracy Walker (16th). Suffice it to say that this secondary should struggle against a Steelers offense that ranks top 10 in pass rate at 61%.

We should also expect Mike Tomlin’s defense to force a few turnovers against a Jared Goff-led Lions team. This could also contribute to the Steeler’s chances of having a massive scoring output.

King of the Week?

Despite all of the Lions’ defensive issues, I don’t think this is a good spot for an injured Steelers offense coming off a short week while the Lions are coming off a bye. If the Pittsburgh Steelers were fully healthy, this might be a strong play, but they are already missing Juju Smith-Schuster, and they will likely be without star receiver Chase Claypool as well on Sunday.

When you factor in that this game currently has the lowest total on the board for Week 10 at 42.5, I believe that there are better spots to hunt for points in the King of the Week promo at BetMGM.