Steelers hold at No. 13 in ESPN power rankings as Bengals jump to No. 7 before AFC North clash
Pittsburgh sat at No. 13 through its bye while Cincinnati rose to No. 7, and ESPN calls Sunday's trip to Cincinnati the Steelers' biggest remaining game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers spent their bye week watching the AFC North race tighten, and the national view of them barely changed. In ESPN's Week 10 power rankings, Pittsburgh stayed at No. 13 at 6-2. The Cincinnati Bengals, who have the same record, climbed three spots to No. 7 after beating Atlanta 34-17 in Madrid.
The Steelers rank behind six other teams with two losses, which shows how the panel weighs the two clubs' recent form, not their records. ESPN's Steelers reporter Brooke Pryor picked Sunday night's trip to Cincinnati as the most important game left on Pittsburgh's schedule. She noted it is the second straight division game with first place at stake and that the Steelers still have two games left against a struggling Baltimore team. In her view, a win in Cincinnati would go a long way toward a division title and a top-four seed. Cincy Jungle has the teams tied atop the division. Pittsburgh holds the edge for now because it won the first meeting.
Cincinnati is the hotter team. ESPN's Ben Baby reported that the Madrid win was the Bengals' fourth in a row and that Joe Burrow went 24-of-29 for 271 yards with four total touchdowns. Burrow entered the week leading the league in QBR. ESPN's panel noted that the Football Power Index favors the Bengals in every game they have left. Steelers Now points out how unusual the matchup is. It will be the first primetime game between these division rivals after September with both teams at .750 or better since 1975.
What it means for Sunday night in Cincinnati
Pittsburgh brings a four-game winning streak into the game. Its last four results were 27-6 over Cleveland, 16-10 over New Orleans, 26-19 at Tampa Bay and 34-22 over Indianapolis. That adds up to 103 points scored and 57 allowed. For the season the Steelers have outscored opponents 180-144. Their two losses were 27-24 at Cleveland and 20-3 at New England. On the road they are 2-2. The first meeting with Cincinnati was a 30-27 Week 3 win in Pittsburgh. ESPN described that game as high-scoring, and the rematch figures to look similar given Burrow's current form. The game kicks off Sunday, Nov. 15, on NBC.
The market agrees with ESPN's rankings. Across the 11 venues on this site's board for the game, Cincinnati is favored by 3.5 points. On Novig, the Bengals are -104 on the spread and the Steelers are -106. On the moneyline, Novig has the Bengals at -182 and the Steelers at +174. The best Cincinnati price anywhere is DraftKings at -180, just 2 cents away from Novig's number. That small gap shows how closely the venues agree. The sportsbooks' moneyline hold runs from 3.2% to 5.1%. The total is 48.5, and Novig has the over at -102 and the under at -100. That total is well above what most of Pittsburgh's games have produced, but it is close to the 57 points scored in the first meeting.
A win would give the Steelers a season sweep of the Bengals and the head-to-head tiebreaker, with Denver and Jacksonville still ahead on the schedule. A loss would leave Pittsburgh behind a Cincinnati team that ESPN's panel already ranks six spots higher.