The Indianapolis Colts are still holding the lead in the AFC South with just five games left to play, but their lead on the Texans is simply a matter of a tiebreaker. The Pittsburgh Steelers don't have the safety of a bad division to fall back on, and that's what makes Sunday Night Football against the Colts at home so darn important.
Big players come up big in big games, and that means Antonio Brown is going to have a lot of pressure on his shoulders to help out his offense. His props though, are going to be severely overpriced.
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The bubble was bound to burst on Antonio Brown at some point. He had 17 catches for 284 yards against the Raiders in Week 9 and 10 catches for 139 yards and two scores in Week 10. It was only a matter of time until he had a subpar game.
That subpar outing came on a day when Markus Wheaton went off for nine catches, 201 yards and a TD against the Seahawks. Richard Sherman was all over Brown the entire game, and Ben Roethlisberger only went 6-of-12 when targeting him for 51 yards with a pick.
It'd be fair to say that Indianapolis doesn't have a single corner that can keep up with Brown the same way Sherman was able to.
We've already seen some wide outs have tremendous days against this Indianapolis secondary. DeAndre Hopkins had 11 catches for 169 yards when the Colts visited Houston. Danny Amendola had seven catches for 105 yards. Emmanuel Sanders had a 64-yard touchdown catch to cap off his day with six catches and 90 yards. Julio Jones had nine grabs for 160 yards.
So we know it's entirely possible that the Colts could give up a huge day to Brown. We're just not sure that the rest of the pieces to the puzzle around him are conducive to having a big day.
For one, the weather is starting to get a lot colder in the northeast, and trying to throw the ball isn't going to be nearly as easy as running it.
The second major factor to consider is Big Ben's health. By all accounts, Roethlisberger is going to play this week, but he did clearly suffer a concussion or concussion-like symptoms last week in the fourth quarter at CenturyLink Field.
Finally, the Steelers just can't throw the ball as much as they did against Seattle if they want to win this game. They've always been a more well-balanced team over the years than they are now, and DeAngelo Williams absolutely has to have at least 12-15 carries. Let's not forget that Pittsburgh was largely playing in a close game the whole way through last Sunday, and most of the fourth quarter, it found itself behind.
Brown might have 85 catches and 1,192 yards on the year, but the passing game is featuring new targets in greater quantities. Both Wheaton and Martavis Bryant are going to get their looks as well, and that's largely limiting Brown to shorter passes. He's still a great red zone threat, so we aren't going to bet against him getting in the end zone, but anything beyond 7.5 catches or 80 yards or so, and we know we're going to be fading away on Brown during Sunday Night Football.
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