Giants-Steelers staff picks, predictions: Giants headed for another primetime nightmare?

The New York Giants have their work cut out for them in Week 8 when they travel to face the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While the Giants have some advantages over the Steelers, the Monday Night Football matchup doesn’t favor New York much at all. The Giants’ defense has played well this year, but the offense hasn’t been able to deliver much of a counter-punch to take the pressure their teammates.

The Steelers, meanwhile, are as they always seem to be: A veteran team with a solid offense and a very stout defense.

Considering the Giants have been hit by injury and are coming off a 28-3 drubbing at the hands of the division rival Philadelphia Eagles, it makes sense that FanDuel lists them as 5.5-point underdogs on the road.

Can anyone pick them to win?

Tony DelGenio

I don’t know if there’s a worse matchup for the Giants than the Steelers at the moment. Pittsburgh features one the NFL’s best pass rushes, with T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig, and Alex Highsmith on the outside, and Cam Heyward on the inside. They’ll be going against a Giants’ offensive line that has a big question mark at left tackle and a center without the lateral mobility to pick up inside rushers. The cornerbacks are not special but safeties DeShon Elliott and Minkah Fitzpatrick are still solid players. This doesn’t bode well for Daniel Jones creating the explosive plays that he hasn’t been able to find against lesser defenses. It’s easy to imagine Jones feeling (mental) pressure to push it downfield after the criticism he’s gotten and being baited and picked off by the safeties.

The Giants’ pass rush has a chance against an average Steelers’ offensive line, especially right tackle Broderick Jones, who has given up six sacks. Russell Wilson can still play but he is more susceptible to pressure than when he was younger, so we might see Shane Bowen dial up many blitzes. Najee Harris has found his stride the last couple of weeks, and that’s not good for a Giants’ run defense that is soft up the middle when Dexter Lawrence isn’t on the field and can’t set the edge on Azeez Ojulari’s side.

Pick: Steelers

Chris Pflum

The Giants’ defense will give them a chance this week. The Steelers have an inexperienced offensive interior and the duo of Brian Burns and Azeez Ojulari should be able to apply pressure against Pittsburgh’s offensive tackles.

That said, the Jets have a lot of the same advantages as the Giants do up front, and pair them with a better secondary. Russell Wilson navigated the Steelers’ offense well last well last week and was typically able to find answers when he was pressured.

I don’t think the defense will get much support from from the offense, as the Steelers have an excellent run defense and a good pass defense. We saw pressure leak through every gap in the Giants’ offensive line last week, and we could see the same thing again if (when) the offense is forced to throw. T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Cam Heyward could give the Giants’ protection fits if they can tee off.

The Giants best bet is to try and keep this game close and hope that the Steelers help them out with mental mistakes and a couple timely turnovers. Otherwise, this might start out as a defensive battle, but see Pittsburgh walk away over the course of the game.

Pick: Steelers

Nick Falato

The New York Giants travel to Pittsburgh for a Monday Night Showdown against one of the toughest defenses in the league. The Steelers are living up to their name on the defensive front — there’s little room to run on Pittsburgh. This could result in another pass-heavy approach from Brian Daboll and the Giants. New York abandoned the run to start its last two contests, and the offensive response was poor. New York has 10 points in the previous two games against bottom-half defenses.

New York has oddly performed better on the road this season. Still, the offensive line issues, combined with a lack of consistency passing the ball, against T.J. Watt and company are a recipe using rancid meat and no spice. New York will have to rely on uber-efficient offensive football and execution to put points on the board. They’ve yet to break 100 points on the season through seven games — points should be hard to come by in Pittsburgh with the state of the offense.

Pick: Steelers

David Hartman

Have the Giants bottomed out? I guess we’ll find out this week. Maybe going on the road will help them, as they’ve played better in their road contests (2-1) than at home (0-4). The Steelers have a tough defense all around and pose some very obvious problems for the offensively-challenged Giants. They’ve got some talented pass rushers (and it’s not just T.J. Watt) and to say N.Y. had protection issues last week would be quite the understatement. If the Giants can’t give Daniel Jones time to throw it won’t matter how open Malik Nabers is.

I do think the Giants have a chance to give Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh offense some problems on defense. The Steelers have struggled to protect and to open running lanes at times this season and their line is inexperienced. The Giants best chance in this game is to win the turnover battle, and stay balanced on offense. I think the Giants will play better than expected, just like they did when they travelled to Seattle. But in the end, Pittsburgh is the better team and they should prevail.

Pick: Steelers

James Hickey

You can make the argument that going on the road is the best thing for the Giants right now—they statistically play better away from MetLife. And despite playing on Monday night, they will be overshadowed by a team they used to share a home with playing for their championship.

The Giants are on the precipice of 2024 games being more about 2025 then an attempt to make the playoffs. Truth be told, this feels like Daniel Jones last game as a starting quarterback for the New York Giants and the Daboll/Schoen pairing moving on from a quarterback they probably wished they never resigned. All of that is a recipe for another loss.

Pick: Steelers

Valentine’s View

There is absolutely nothing leading up to Monday night that gives you the idea the Giants will win. There are plenty of indicators that make you think the Steelers might hand them a primetime beatdown. The Giants are 2-17 in regular season primetime slots since 2019, with a number of those losses coming in lopsided or hard to explain fashion.

The Giants have scored 10 points in the past two weeks. The Steelers are allowing the second-fewest points in the league. The Giants surrendered eight sacks last week. The Steelers have T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, and Alex Highsmith.

The Giants have the worst rushing defense in the NFL in yards allowed per rushing attempt. The Steelers love to run the ball, second in the league in rushing attempts. The Steelers just had their best offensive game of the season, putting up 37 points and 409 yards in a victory over the New York Jets. The Giants had 119 yards last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, their lowest output in a game this century.

The only thing the Giants have going for them is that the game is in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey. The Giants are 0-4 at MetLife Stadium, 2-1 on the road.

That detail is not nearly enough to sway me toward picking the upset.

Pick: Steelers