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Pittsburgh Steelers: 3 Toughest games of 2019 season

By Samuel Teets

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 03: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots reacts in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 03: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots reacts in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 20: Aaron Donald #99 of the Los Angeles Rams celebrates with the NFC Trophy as General Manager Les Snead and Jared Goff #16 look on after defeating the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 20, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 20: Aaron Donald #99 of the Los Angeles Rams celebrates with the NFC Trophy as General Manager Les Snead and Jared Goff #16 look on after defeating the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 20, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

The Pittsburgh Steelers are still one of the most talented teams in the NFL. They’ve got a tough road to the playoffs this coming season.

After a promising first half of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers finished with a 9-6-1 record and missed the playoffs in 2018. The Steelers faced playoff teams in six games last year and went an underwhelming 2-4. This coming season, Pittsburgh will play seven games against playoff teams from last year. It’s going to be a challenging road to the postseason for the Steelers.

As for one notable omission in regards to tough 2019 games, the Steelers always play close games against the Baltimore Ravens. That division rivalry is one of the best in football right now. That being said, I didn’t include because the Steelers do see them twice every year.

It’s a given that the two Steelers-Ravens games are going to be tough competitions. I wanted to focus more on the unique games against teams Pittsburgh will only see once in 2019.

Without further ado, these are the three toughest games for the Steelers in 2019.

3. Los Angeles Rams – Week 9

It’s hard to judge exactly how well the Rams will play this season. While the team added Clay Matthews and Eric Weddle, it also lost Lamarcus Joyner, Rodger Saffold, Sam Shields, Ndamukong Suh and John Sullivan. Four of those players were full-time starters while Shields was a heavy contributor during the time Aqib Talib missed with an injury.

The Steelers also signed Mark Barron this offseason. Barron started 12 games at linebacker for Los Angeles last season.

The Rams are also facing a question mark with regards to how effective Todd Gurley will be with his arthritic knee. It already seems like he won’t be the workhorse that he’s been in past seasons, but will he still be a great player? Between Gurley question marks and losing two starting offensive linemen, the Rams offense might not be close to what it was in 2018.

There are also questions surrounding Jared Goff and how he’ll bounce back from some poor play during the end of the regular season and the playoffs. During the final five weeks of the regular season, Goff threw as many touchdowns as he did interceptions. In the playoffs, he threw just one touchdown and two interceptions.

Sean McVay‘s team might be in for a down season next year, in which case putting them in this article will seem silly. However, this is still the team that made it out of the stacked NFC last season. The team finished second in overall offense, fifth in passing and third in rushing last season. No other team finished in the top five in all three of those categories.

For now, the Week 9 matchup with the Rams seems like it will be one of the toughest on the Steelers’ schedule.

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