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The 0-1 Pittsburgh Steelers host the 1-0 San Francisco 49ers Sunday at Heinz Field. Despite the 49ers dealing with an extremely short work week after their victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football, the team will be packing up and heading across country to Pittsburgh for a 1:00 p.m. EST kickoff.
Although the short week could certainly cause some issues for the visiting team, expect Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers offense to give the Steelers questionable defense all they can handle. The 49ers are a team who is the complete opposite of the Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski led offense the defense faced in Week 1. San Francisco is a running team, and they use the run to set up the pass.
On the other side of the coin, you have the prolific Steelers offense lead by Ben Roethlisberger with a wide array of weapons at his disposal. Players like Antonio Brown, DeAngelo Williams, Heath Miller, Markus Wheaton and Darrius Heyward-Bey will look to get the best of a very stout 49ers defense. The 49ers secondary is the Achilles' heel of their defense, and Roethlisberger could look to exploit such a weakness early and often.
The spread on this game has the Steelers giving the 49ers 6 points, but picking this game is far from certain. Unlike Week 1, where it is extremely difficult for the visiting team to defeat the defending Super Bowl champions in the season opener, the Steelers are looking to extend their outstanding home opener record under Mike Tomlin.
This is a game of strengths vs. weaknesses, but in the end your prediction is solely up to you. Be sure to enter your prediction in the tool below. All of BTSC's predictions will be calculated, tabulated and ranked against Niners Nation (SB Nations's 49ers site) to see which fans truly are the wisest in this Week 2 grudge match.
Jeff Hartman's Pick (Editor of BTSC):
Steelers: 33
49ers: 24