The Carolina Panthers (6-2) travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers (5-2-1) at Heinz Field on Thursday night in a game that kicks off Week 10 in the NFL.
The Panthers, who have won three straight games will do a battle against a Steelers team that is on a four-game winning streak.
Although the Steelers will once again be without holdout running back LeVeon Bell, they are not sweating it anymore due to the breakout performances of standout replacement James Conner.
Conner has been shining in Bell’s absence as this season he’s racked up four games with 100 or more rushing yards, 50 or more receiving yards and one touchdown, which has set the all-time record for most such games in a single season.
Even more impressive is how well Conner has been performing against defenses even when they stack the box. This season Conner’s averaging 4.7 rushing yards per attempt against 8 or more defenders in the box, while the NFL average this season is 3.3 yards per rush.
For the Panthers, their improvement stems from the fact that quarterback Cam Newton has steadily improved as the season goes along. Newton has thrown 126 pass attempts since his last interception, which stands as the third-longest active streak in the league.
The 2015 MVP has been better this year as he’s been dramatically more efficient completing a career-high 67 percent of his passes while leading all quarterbacks in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.
This efficiency is reflecting on the Panthers offense improvement over the last two weeks, as they have been scoring 33 points per game since Week 7, which stands tied for fourth in the NFL.
The Steelers will need to pressure Newton all game long to try to stop the Panthers read option game, which gives him the flexibility of choosing whether to pass it, hand it off, or run with it depending on what the defenses throw at them.
If the Steelers force Newton to make his decisions fast and under pressure, he’s more likely to struggle and make mistakes that could become turnovers.
This will be a close game, but with the Steelers being at home it’s hard to see them losing, even if it’s against a team as solid as the Panthers, thus expect Pittsburgh to win 24-28.
