Big Red
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- Mar 16, 2019
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The Steelers (7-5) have won six of their past seven games to vault into the second wild card spot in the AFC, but there are many teams on their tail. Pittsburgh has one of the NFL’s best defenses, but will be undermanned offensively against the Cardinals.
Running back James Conner (shoulder) and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee) -- the de facto replacements for longtime stars Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown -- won’t play. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (elbow) was lost for the season in Week 2, and the Steelers will trot out undrafted rookie free agent Duck Hodges in his place.
Hodges has a quarterback rating of 97.0 and is averaging a gaudy 8.7 yards per pass attempt, but he’s only attempted 61 throws and is still far from proven at the professional level.
The Cardinals’ defense is giving up a passer rating of 113.5 to opposing quarterbacks this season and allowed a former undrafted quarterback – Carolina’s Kyle Allen – to have a career day against it in Week 3. If there is any hope for defensive improvement down the stretch, this seems like the game to kickstart it.
“Everybody has to step it up,” safety Budda Baker said.
Even though the Cardinals were officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss to the Rams, Kingsbury said he will not be making decisions with an eye on 2020.
“We can look at that stuff after the season and really evaluate it, but my job is to win games,” Kingsbury said. “I’m really just trying to stay in the moment.”
The current moment is a challenging one after the loss to the Rams, but Kingsbury has been happy with the way the players responded. Nothing can erase the blowout, but the performance can be pushed to the rearview with a victory over the Steelers.
“We wanted to get back to how we’ve been, and I think the practices have been good,” Kingsbury said. “Now we’ve got to go out there and do it.”
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