Lions vs. Steelers preview podcast: Why Pittsburgh fans are worried about ‘trap game’

On Wednesday, I broke down why I believed the Pittsburgh Steelers were a vulnerable team. Outside of dealing with a short week, while the Detroit Lions had a full two weeks to prepare for this Week 10 matchup, this Steelers team isn’t exactly the team we’re accustomed to seeing. They’re going through some serious offensive troubles, and while they’ve got a fantastic defensive front, the rest of the defense remains a work in progress.

But that was simply my perspective. Sometimes an outsider’s perspective can be more objective. Sometimes it can miss the forest through the trees.

So on this week’s First Byte podcast, we talked to Bryan Davis of SB Nation’s Steelers blog Behind the Steel Curtain to see if he agreed with some of my assessments of the team. Davis admitted that Pittsburgh does have serious vulnerabilities—specifically on the offensive line and the secondary. But more telling, Davis said that Steelers fans may be worried about this upcoming game, because the team tends to play down to their opponent’s level.

“I know that this is not going to be a blowout,” Davis told us. “I will tell you right now there’s a lot of nerves on the fans at BTSC especially for this game. They’re throwing out the word trap game. They’re throwing out all of this, and the Steelers do not play well—the Steelers play better if you have a winning record. I don’t want to say they look past competition because Mike Pettaway Tomlin will never let you get away with that, because he’s like, ‘No, we’re taking everybody seriously.’ But you saw what happened against the Bears. You saw what happened against other teams this season, too. When the Steelers are favored by more than six, give away those points.”

Check out our full conversation below:

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