Pittsburgh Steelers Week 7 Preview: Bonne Chance Aux Steelers!

The title of this week’s column is in French. It means “Good luck Steelers!” It is in French because the Steelers find themselves overseas this week to face the New Orleans Saints in Paris, France. While that country is dealing with some civil unrest, the NFL continued to schedule this game in that country. With the Saints nickname relating to the French, that was obviously the reason the game is being played there.

The two teams will meet in the stadium named Stade de France which seats 81,000. It was built back in the late 1990s for hosting the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It is a pretty stadium as shown here. How many fans show up for this game remains to be seen given the fracas going on in Paris and how many American fans will actually pay for and make the trip overseas.

Heading into the game Pittsburgh is 4-2 and the Saints are the opposite at 2-4. New Orleans is coming off a 34-27 victory over the New York Giants. The Steelers had a scare in Tampa and had to stage an incredible comeback to get an overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-19. That game was a tale of two halves. In the first two quarters the Steelers offense could do nothing. Tampa managed to put 13 points on the board to take a 13-3 lead heading into the third quarter. Another field goal in the third stretched their lead to 16-3 and for most Steelers fans, they thought this was going to be a bad day at the office.

Then the unthinkable happened. Aaron Rodgers reverted to a version of his old self and led Pittsburgh on a 13-point run to tie the game. Another Chris Boswell gave the Steelers their first lead in the game with just over a minute left to play but credit to Tampa for getting downfield for a field goal for their own and it was overtime time. Interesting decision to start the overtime period came when Tampa won the toss and elected to kick off.

Aaron Rodgers, on Pittsburgh’s first and only drive of the overtime period managed a 12-play, 70-yard drive culminating in a winning touchdown to the hands of rookie Germie Bernard on a six-yard Rodgers pass that Bernard made a superb effort to stretch for the end zone. Another rookie, Jaylen Daniels for Tampa looked like a season veteran in the first half but some adjustments must have been made by the Steelers at halftime because Daniels had little success in the third and fourth quarters and the Pittsburgh defense turned up the heat sacking Daniels on the last play of the game sealing the deal.

With the return of Rico Dowdle, Jaylen Warren’s touches in the game were reduced after he had put together a monster game the week before. The positive aspect for Steelers fans of having Warren and Dowdle in the game together is they will prove to be a very dangerous 1-2 punch. Dowdle had seven rushes for 40 yards and a 5.7 per carry mark and Warren 14 rushes for 50 yards getting close to an average of four per carry. But Warren also chipped in with two receptions for 28 yards.

The hero of the day for the Steelers offense was clearly Aaron Rodgers. Experience counts. Rodgers showed that in the comeback win there can no longer be any regrets from any Steelers fan as to why he was brought back for another season. In Tampa, Rodgers was extremely efficient in the second half. His passes were super accurate, and his management of the game was clearly evident and is due to his lengthy experience in the league. While he was sacked five times and did throw one interception that was not a bad pass, just a bit of bad luck, he threw the ball 49 times. He completed 33 passes, which is a lot.

Two Aaron Rodgers passes were for scores. The one to Bernard discussed above, and one to Darnell Washington. All of Rodgers receiving weapons chipped in. DK Metcalf with 11 receptions and 93 yards, Bernard with another 11. Warren with his two and Washington with four more. Pat Freiermuth caught two and Dowdle three. The game could have avoided overtime when Chris Boswell had a rare moment as he missed a field goal. He made up for it with the late 58-yard field goal that tied the game. Then he hit a 20-yarder to give Pittsburgh their first lead of the game.

Defensively, the Steelers played well in the first half but put the heat on high in the final two quarters. In the end, Tampa’s Jaylen Daniels nearly threw the ball as many times as Rodgers with 43 attempts but he completed only 22 and threw two interceptions, one by Jamal Dean who was playing for the Bucs a year ago. He was sacked five times and the run defense limited Tampa to just 102 yards.

Defensive player of the day? That would have to be Jalen Ramsey. Not only did he make that sack to end the game, Ramsey added 10 tackles, nine of which were solo. He had an additional sack to the game ending effort and four of his tackles resulted in a loss of yardage for the Bucs. Ramsey also had two quarterback hits. One Steelers defender who had been under the gun for not performing was Nick Herbig but he finally broke out of his shell with a six solo tackle day and two sacks, three tackles resulting in a loss of yardage. Herbig also had two quarterback hits. Yahya Black had Pittsburgh’s only other sack.

Now as the French would say it, “Jouons au ballon!” (“let’s play ball!”).

WHEN THE STEELERS HAVE THE BALL

The New Orleans defense is yielding about 256 yards per game from opposing quarterbacks. When defending the run, they’ve given up the third most yards in the league an average of 138 per game. These numbers bode well for the Steelers. Think about this, Aaron Rodgers is without Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson. Because of the injuries the Steelers added former Packer and a Steelers receiver from last season, Marquez Valdes-Scantling to the practice squad.

As many Steelers fans recall, Scantling was not only a former teammate of Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, he was reunited with Rodgers in Pittsburgh in 2025 and was awful. There are rumors flying around that the Steelers would like to trade for Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas Jr. In the meantime, the Saints best prepare for a heavy dose of the Warren/Dowdle combination and then in the air? My gosh, good luck covering Metcalf, Bernard, Freiermuth, and the big man, Darnell Washington.

We should expect points on the board for Pittsburgh. It might be a lot of them.

WHEN THE SAINTS HAVE THE BALL

Tyler Shough is not having too bad a season. He’s averaging 240 yards passing per game and has thrown 12 touchdown passes. Only five of his passes have been picked off and he’s been sacked just 13 times. Their running game is a combined effort between Kendre Miller, Travis Etienne Jr., Alvin Kamara, and Shough. As a team they average nearly 96 yards per game rushing. But the offense has reached the end zone by a rush attempt only six times in six games.

The Steelers rush defense was improving with Derek Harmon in the lineup so losing him to injury hurt and after six games Pittsburgh’s defense is giving up around 103 yards per game on the ground. Many of those yards have been coming on missed tackles. The secondary is giving up an average of 222 yards per game so these numbers fall in line with just about what the Saints have been producing.

Tyler Shough should expect some pressure like he has yet to see this season. I also think Mike McCarthy is aware of the tackling issues and if Deshon Elliott makes his long-awaited return in Paris, that area should improve.

INTANGIBLES

The New Orleans Saints have been a losing team historically but believe it or not, they have the lead in the 17 times these two teams have met winning nine of those. The last meeting was four years ago a game in which took place at Heinz Field and the Steelers won 20-10. However, before that game, New Orleans had won three straight. In 1967 which was the first meeting the Saints lost that game then won the next three following by three straight victories by the Steelers.

This game is overseas in France, a place no NFL team has ever played before. So, the Saints and Steelers are the guinea pigs. There should be no home field advantage for New Orleans who is the scheduled home team so this game comes down to simply executing with no fan noise as a factor. The Steelers are scoring around 23 points per game and giving up on an average of 21. The Saints on the other hand have a scoring average of 25 while their defense is allowing nearly 30 points per game. I say advantage Pittsburgh.

PREDICTION