The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to play the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, and after losing their last two games, this might not be the week that they get back on track. The Colts are the top seed in the AFC, and they’ve got the No. 1 offense in the league. Meanwhile, the Steelers’ defense is one of the NFL’s worst. Former NFL head coach Tony Dungy believes that the Colts’ offense could be in for a huge day at Acrisure Stadium.
“Indianapolis coming in there, they’ve got a diversified attack,” Dungy said recently on the Football Night in America podcast. “They can run the football, they’re hitting deep passes, they’ve got a misdirection game. All the things that Pittsburgh has struggled with. They could put up 40 points in this game. It would not surprise me at all.”
The Steelers haven’t allowed an opponent to score 40 points or more in a regular season game since the 2021 season. In Week 11, the Los Angeles Chargers put up 41 points to beat the Steelers. In that matchup, Justin Herbert threw for 382 yards and three touchdowns, with Keenan Allen recording nine receptions for 112 yards.
The following week, the Bengals beat the Steelers 41-10, but Cincinnati returned an interception for a touchdown in that game. Therefore, the Steelers’ defense didn’t really allow 40 points.
For reference, in that game against the Chargers, the Steelers had players like Tre Norwood, Chris Wormley, and Joe Schobert starting. Compare that to their team now. The Steelers have far more talent than they did in that game in 2021. Injuries aren’t the reason for their struggles.
Could their defense suffer a similar meltdown this week? Like Dungy says, that wouldn’t be too surprising. The Colts have already put up at least 40 points twice this year. In their last two games, they’ve scored 38 points. Also, the Steelers have allowed more than 30 points in each of their last two games.
Therefore, the Colts could come in and crush the Steelers. Their defense will need to have a serious bounce-back performance if they want to slow down Indianapolis. Still, even if the Steelers don’t let up 40 points, that doesn’t mean they’ll win the game. They’re 1-3 this year when allowing over 30 points. They’ll need to play a complete game on both sides of the ball to beat the Colts.
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