Steelers vs. Giants where to watch: Kickoff time, TV, NFL live stream, spread, odds, prediction for ‘MNF’

In a Week 8 edition of “Monday Night Football,” we have a marquee matchup as the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New York Giants. 

Pittsburgh is holding a surprising 5-2 record coming into this game, and just captured a win against the other New York team in the first game of the Russell Wilson era. The Giants, meanwhile, are 2-5 and looking like they are headed for another early draft pick.

Can the Steelers continue their strong start, or will the Giants capture an upset? We’ll find out soon enough. Before we break down the matchup, here’s a look at how you can watch the game.

Where to watch Steelers vs. Giants

Date: Monday, Oct. 28 | Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
Location: Acrisure Stadium (Pittsburgh)
Channel: ESPN | Stream: fubo (try for free)
Follow: CBS Sports App   
Odds: Steelers -6; O/U 36.5 (via Caesars Sportsbook)

When the Giants have the ball

The Giants enter this game ranking 29th in the NFL in yards per game and 31st in points per game. Through seven weeks, their offense ranks:

• 30th in yards per play
• 32nd (aka last) in points per drive
• 25th in success rate (via Tru Media)
• 25th in third-down conversion rate
• 27th in the share of their plays that have been stopped at the line or lost yardage
• 30th in the share of plays that have gained 20 or more yards
• 25th in expected points added (EPA) per play

They lost star left tackle Andrew Thomas in Week 6, and Daniel Jones was promptly pressured on an incredible 48.3% of his dropbacks in Week 7. Against a team featuring a pass-rush group of T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton, that is less — needless to say — than ideal. New York’s offensive line was already pretty poor in both pass protection and the run game (the Giants’ 1.12 yards before contact per carry average is 29th in the NFL), and Thomas’ continued absence is unlikely to help matters.

Even when Jones does have time, which figures to not be all that often, he has to face a Pittsburgh secondary that has allowed the NFL’s fourth-lowest passer rating, while yielding only four touchdown passes against seven interceptions. It’s probably not a coincidence that Malik Nabers was held to his worst performance of the season (four catches for 41 yards on eight targets) in the first game the G-Men played without Thomas, and now he will have the added burden of being covered by Joey Porter Jr. for much of the evening. Nabers is good enough that he can still beat Porter’s sticky coverage, but it might not matter if Jones is under consistent heavy pressure. 

The Steelers pass defense tends to funnel passes to the slot, which means Wan’Dale Robinson could be in for a busy evening. Robinson is already among the league leaders in target share, but he’s also averaging a mere 4.5 yards per target and a pitiful 34.3% receiving success rate. The Steelers will likely be content to let Jones check down to him all game long, betting that they can rally to the ball and prevent first downs, just as many Giants opponents before them have done.

Perhaps Jones’ athleticism can help either him or running backs Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary find success on the ground, but it seems unlikely given New York’s offensive line issues and the strength of Pittsburgh’s defensive front.

Bet Malik Nabers props at FanDuel.

When the Steelers have the ball

In his first game under center for Pittsburgh, Russell Wilson started pretty slowly. He completed just 2 of 6 passes for 19 yards in the first quarter, averaging a mere 3.7 intended air yards per attempt, via Tru Media. That’s not Wilson’s game. His game is launching moon-ball deep shots down the field. And in the final three quarters, the Steelers let him do quite a bit more of that, and he performed better. He went 14 of 23 for 245 yards and two scores in quarters 2 through 4, averaging a much healthier 9.4 air yards per attempt.

He connected on a pair of deep balls to George Pickens, creating gains of 44 yards and 37 yards. He had a pair of big-gainers on slightly shorter passes to Pat Freiermuth, and Calvin Austin had a nice catch-and-run as well. He finished the game 16 of 29 for 264 yards and two touchdowns, so the final stat line looked pretty good. He got quite a bit of help at the catch point from Pickens, in particular, as the big wideout hauled in a pair of pretty spectacular contested grabs through tight coverage. But those are still the kind of big gains the Steelers were only rarely creating in the passing game with Justin Fields under center. 

Having Wilson in there also opened things up for the run game. Pittsburgh faced a stacked box (more defensive players than blockers) on only 8.3% of its rushing attempts in Week 7, according to NFL Pro, the team’s lowest rate of the season. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Najee Harris had one of his best rushing performances of the season, carrying 21 times for 102 yards and a touchdown.

The Giants haven’t been all that good against the run so far this season, allowing an average of 1.81 yards before contact (25th in the MFL, via Tru Media) and 3.62 yards after contact (31st) on a per-carry basis. They have played some of the lightest boxes in the NFL, dropping eight man down toward the line of scrimmage on only 11.2% of snaps. Pittsburgh will likely try to #EstablishIt, given that it’s offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s preference to do so anyway, but that would also be a good idea because Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence is liable to absolutely demolish an opponent’s passing game.

Lawrence is playing better than any defensive player in the NFL this season, leading the league with nine sacks and registered 29 pressures AS A NOSE TACKLE. What he’s doing, frankly, is almost unheard of for a player at that position. (To be clear, he plays a different position than someone like Aaron Donald or Chris Jones, even if they all line up on the defensive interior. Think of guys like Vince Wilfork instead.) Pittsburgh’s offensive line looked better last week and perhaps could hold up in a way it hadn’t earlier in the year, and the play-action/bootleg-heavy system is intended to get Wilson on the perimeter and away from someone like Lawrence, but that probably wouldn’t stop him from wreaking havoc.

Bet Russell Wilson props at DraftKings.

Prediction

In a game between a pair of teams whose offenses leave something to be desired but whose defenses are somewhere between very solid (Giants) and excellent (Steelers), we’re rolling with the team that has the better defensive unit among the two. Pittsburgh’s pass rush should ultimately prove far too much for the Giants to handle, while the Steelers also have more avenues to successfully move the ball than do the Giants. Pick: Steelers 20, Giants 10

Bonus: R.J. White, who is on a 66-35 against-the-spread roll on Pittsburgh Steelers games, has released his best bets for the Week 8 ”Monday Night Football” matchup. White is leaning the Under total, but who is he backing to cover? Find out right here at Sportsline.

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