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The only way to get to 4-0 is to go 3-0 first. Five teams have remained unbeaten as the NFL season starts to shake the rust off. As a continuation of last week’s piece, I wanted to dive even deeper into these “surprises” (maybe we’ll call them “preseason non-favorites”) and how they can now get to 4-0.
First: Sorry, Chiefs and Bills. You were definitely preseason favorites. Although both perennial contenders continue to evolve and shift into new philosophies and identities that are going to be fun to dissect in the coming weeks — Rashee Rice’s Kelce-like usage, two of the best run games in the NFL, new Bills defensive faces, Josh Allen morphing from Professor Chaos into Shao Khan — that’s for a later day.
Instead, I wanted to dig into three of the other undefeateds, all on the road this Week 4 with two being underdogs, and their matchups as they try to remain unbeaten.
Pittsburgh Steelers (-1.5 at Colts)
The Steelers are actually favorites at the time of this writing, reflecting their strong defensive performance (first in EPA per play, and fourth in FTN’s defensive DVOA, which makes adjustments based on opponents) and the offense finding the correct way to best use its personnel.
Center Zach Frazier has reinforced the entire offensive operation, and while the numbers haven’t entirely reflected it — the Steelers are 28th in rushing success rate — some of that is because of their offensive line gelling with a quarterback who wasn’t the entrenched starter during preseason against a tougher-than-expected schedule of defenses. (The Broncos’ group in particular is looking like one of the league’s better defenses. Pretty fun matchup against the Jets on Sunday with a Pat Surtain II vs. Garrett Wilson cruiserweight battle. Hello, MIke Williams?)
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith still mixes his personnel together like Doctor Moreau. Week 3 against the Chargers featured 11 snaps with jumbo personnel (six offensive linemen) and 16 snaps of Pony personnel,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/football-301-playbook-what-steelers-vikings-and-seahawks-need-to-do-to-surprise-us-even-more-and-reach-4-0-140015021.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-26 14:00:15
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