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The Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars are about to square off in a rematch of the Week-5 contest when the Jaguars beat the Steelers 30-9 at Heinz Field. A lot has changed since that matchup in early October, but if either team has aspirations of making it to the AFC Championship Game, they’ll need to win on Sunday at ‘the Big Ketchup Bottle’.
With a lot of uncertainty surrounding this matchup, it’s time to check in with the experts who make weekly picks to see who they like in this AFC Divisional Round battle.
If you’re looking for a pro-Steelers website, ESPN is your go-to choice. All of their experts who place weekly predictions think the Steelers will be the team advancing, while the Jaguars would be starting their NFL Draft preparation.
A similar song can be sung at SB Nation, but there’s one lone expert who believes the Jaguars will shock the football world and end Pittsburgh’s season prematurely. Other than that lone wolf, the rest of the experts like the Steelers.
At CBS Sports, their one expert who focuses on weekly picks, especially in the postseason, also likes the Steelers. See what he had to say about the matchup:
When it comes to the historical trends of low-scoring teams faring the next week. Too much is being put into the Steelers losing to the Jaguars. This is a different situation, with it being the playoffs and the Steelers having multiple weeks to prepare for this specific opponent. Yes, they could have played Tennessee or Kansas City, but it was very likely they were getting the Jags. They prepped for Jacksonville and a revenge game.
Le’Veon Bell at 100 percent is better than LeSean McCoy at 75 percent and the Steelers offensive line will open up similar holes to the ones that Shady had against the Jaguars. He runs it 25 times, minimum and Ben hits Antonio Brown for two scores in a boat race.
These are all great, but they’re just a handful of sites who submit weekly picks by their NFL experts. To get a gauge on all of the NFL expert picks, we work with our friends at NFL Pick Watch, a website which takes all NFL expert picks and puts them into an easy-to-read graph. According to NFL Pick Watch, a whopping 97 percent of experts like the Steelers to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the second consecutive season.
Las Vegas is favoring Pittsburgh, and the experts certainly like the Steelers on Sunday, but there’s a reason they play the game. Stay tuned to BTSC for all the latest news and updates heading into this huge AFC Playoff matchup.