The Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars will go head-to-head this Sunday in Week 11 NFL action, and fans of the 9-0 Steelers are worried.
Why would they be concerned about their favorite team, with a perfect record, traveling to play the 1-8 Jaguars?
TRAP GAME!
With the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12 on Thanksgiving night on the horizon, fans are worried about the let down, and you can easily point to several examples in the Mike Tomlin era as the culprits for these fans feeling this way.
But enough about the fans, what about the experts? Do they foresee a let down/trap game, or do they see the Steelers getting to 10-0 before the big showdown with Baltimore on Thanksgiving night?
Time to take a look who the experts like in this AFC showdown...
Like every week, there are experts who actually put some thought into how the games will turn out. Instead of just clicking a button for a specific team, they expound on why they believe a certain team will be victorious on game day. Will Brunson of CBS Sports is one of those experts, and you can see what he had to say about the Week 11 game between the Steelers and Jaguars below:
Another clear-cut “what do you do with this game?” game. Jacksonville was giving up when they started Jake Luton, except they’ve covered two straight and have been competitive! There’s a decent chance Doug Marrone is a really good coach who just happens to also be terrible at job selection. This should be a bloodbath but the Jags are frisky and Mike Tomlin’s teams love to struggle in Florida and in California when giant spreads are involved. I won’t take anything here but I am intrigued by what Heath Cummings and Frank Stampfl floated on the podcast Thursday — the Jags have quietly been good against the run and Ben Roethlisberger might just be calling the plays on offense now. My favorite play here is a Big Ben over passing yards on anything 260 or less plus Big Ben over 1.5 TDs.
Projected score: Steelers 28, Jaguars 21
Brunson’s colleague Pete Prisco of CBS Sports also shows why he thinks the Steelers will win, or lose, every week. This week Prisco is all-in on the Steelers, see why:
The Jaguars have played the Steelers tough in their history. That won’t be the case here. The Steelers are rolling and got the offense cranked up last week. The pass rush will be too much for Jake Luton on the other side of the ball. Steelers win big.
Pick: Steelers 31, Jaguars 17
The Sporting News has started to give more background behind their expert picks, and they too like the Steelers to remain perfect this Sunday when the team travels down to Duval county in Florida. Check out their reasoning behind the pick:
The Jaguars are double-digit underdogs for the second straight week, but the difference will be an aggressive Steelers’ defense that will force Jake Luton into turnovers. Pittsburgh improves to 10-0 behind Ben Roethlisberger – who continues to spread the wealth to a talented group of receivers.
Pick: Steelers 31, Jaguars 19
With that said, not every site gives a reason for their pick. Taking a look at the experts at ESPN, and the haters here at SB Nation, and all of the experts on both panels see the Steelers staying perfect this Sunday.
What about all those other sites who submit expert picks weekly? After all, the above sites are just a handful of sites who give their opinions on the outcome of NFL games. This is where our friends at NFL Pick Watch come in and lend a hand. NFL Pick Watch takes all NFL expert picks and puts them into an easy to ready graph for fans to see which way experts are leaning.
According to NFL Pick Watch, a whopping 99% of experts like the Steelers to win on Sunday and give Jacksonville their ninth straight loss on the season. Will this happen? Only time will tell, but there is no doubt which way the experts are leaning in this matchup.
Be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black and gold as they prepare for the Jaguars this Sunday in Week 11.