The Pittsburgh Steelers will be hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1:05 PM ET this Sunday at Heinz Field. This will be one of the most closely watched games of the weekend, if not the most.
The last matchup between the two teams came in October when the Jaguars' defense wreaked havoc on the Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger threw a career high five interceptions in the game, and Steelers star running back Le'Veon Bell only ran for 47 yards and no touchdowns. The one bright spot of the game for the offense was Antonio Brown's 157 yards on 10 receptions.
The Steelers this game have a few keys to victory that they have to focus on to get the "revenge victory". First of which comes on the defensive end. While it is abundantly clear that Roethlisberger needs to perform better than the last time they played, the Steelers defense must stop rookie running back Leonard Fournette, who absolutely thrashed them, running for 181 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, averaging 6.5 yards per carry.
Along with Roethlisberger needing an improvement in his game, some other offensive keys are getting our weapons the ball. The emergence of rookie WR JuJu Smith-Schuster has been huge for the Steelers offense, now allowing them another air weapon besides Antonio Brown. At several points this season, Smith-Schuster has doused defenses when an emphasis is placed too heavily on Brown, leaving room for Smith-Schuster to burst through now exposed weak points in defenses.
Also, Bell needs to get more carries than he was given the first match up. Only 15 carries will not allow Bell to even be a factor in the game. Along with him being able to dice up a relatively injured defense, he will open up the passing game and allow Roethlisberger to get the revenge that him, along with the rest of the Steelers want.
The revenge tour's first stop is in their own stadium. This will be the first step on the "stairway to seven", so now the Steelers must take every snap seriously and be prepared to fight for every down like it were the game winning play in the super bowl.
