Steelers vs. Panthers: 5 reasons to watch "Thursday Night Football"

When Steelers and Panthers meet Thursday night football, Carolina will be looking for her first road win in Pittsburgh and her first Steelers victory since 1996. Carolina is 1-5 behind Pittsburgh and 3-3 on the road, but the Panthers have dominated last weeks. in this match with a 6-2 record. The Steelers are not left with a record of 5-2-1 which places them at the forefront of the CAF North.

After the 49ers played Thursday night against the Raiders last week, much more exciting than expected for a game that included winners, our expectations are greater for a match featuring two record-breaking teams. victories.

Here are five things to watch for when the Steelers face the Panthers Thursday Football in week 10 of the NFL (Fox / NFL network, 8:20 pm, Eastern time).

1) The novices of the Panthers

The second round selection of Panthers rookie Donte Jackson had a fantastic season. He is tied for first place in the league with four interceptions and recorded his fourth dish of the season against the Buccaneers last week. Jackson has 37 tackles, one bag, seven defensive passes and a forced fumble. Look for an impact tonight.

In addition, the rookie receiver in the first round, D.J. Moore, received 297 receiving yards and one touchdown with 117 rushing yards. Last week, Moore set a franchise record with the Panthers: a wide receiver ran after a 32-yard run. Look for Moore's former teammate in Maryland and Steelers safety member Sean Davis to end the rookie receiver's injury tonight.

2) Stand out

Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey has seen a significant improvement over a relatively impressive rookie season in 2017 and will be an integral part of Carolina's game plan tonight. He will be playing his 25th career game and needs 63 rushing yards to become the seventh player in league history with at least 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in his first 25 career games.

Here are the other players to accomplish this feat:

As for the Steelers, they too have a downward trend. James Conner has 706 rushing yards, nine touchdowns, 379 yards and one point in the air.

This match will be interesting for the second year because he will replace Le'Veon Bell while the star is back in Miami to watch football from his couch this season. It seems now that Bell is back in Pittsburgh and makes his first appearance of the season at Heinz Field early next week. Could this be Conner's last match as the Steelers started to turn around?

Last week, against the Ravens, Conner had 163 yards of scrimmage and a touchdown. He starts this week with over 100 yards on the ground, more than 50 yards on the ground and at least one touchdown in 2018. He is the only player in the history of the Steelers with more than 1,000 yards of scrimmage (1,085 yards). ) and more than 10 touchdowns (10) in the team. first eight games of a season. Expect him to make another splash tonight.

That said, the Steelers 'defense is scoring the sixth-lowest rush per game (90.3) and the Panthers' defense the eighth-lowest (94.1).

3) The Antonio Brown-Ben Roethlisberger link

Ben Roethlisberger started the season slowly, but began to heat up, as did his close ties with Antonio Brown. The ninth week was marked by the touchdown of the 68th Big Ben in AB, including nine this season.

With two touchdown passes from Roethlisberger to Brown tonight against Carolina, they would become the seventh quarterback receiver duo in NFL history to connect to 70 career touchdowns.

Here are the QB-WR duos to accomplish this task so far:

4. Statistically similar defenses

Both fouls are quite prolific (Pittsburgh ranks ninth in points per game with 28.4 and Carolina tied in 11th with 27.5), the match could be summarized as a strengthening of the defense. But, these are two rather similar defenses.

Yards per match: Caroline (11th, 344.8), Pittsburgh (12th, 347.9)
Passing yards per match: Caroline (19th, 250.6), Pittsburgh (21st, 257.6)
Rushing yards per game: Caroline (8th, 94.1), Pittsburgh (6th, 90.3)
Points per match: Caroline (12th, 22.5), Pittsburgh (15th, 23.5)
Forced Exhausts: Caroline (12th, 8th), Pittsburgh (15th, 7th)

As for the Steelers, they are tied for fourth in the NFL with 26 sacks and the Panthers tied for 19th with 21.0. The Carolina defense is among the most interceptions with 11 (4th) while the Steelers have five (t-21).

5) The supporters of both teams are extremely confident

The fans of the Steelers enter this game with great confidence in their team. 82% of the fans surveyed by SB Nation's FanPulse survey trust the team's leadership. For fans of the Panthers, 85% of fans are confident in the direction of the team. Fans of both teams think they will win tonight. You will need to log in to find out who is right.

Behind the FanPulse steel curtain: Steelers will win by 5
FanPulse Cat Scratch Reader: The Panthers will win by 2
chances: Pittsburgh -4