Why the 49ers can't take the Steelers lightly in Week 1 of the 2023 season
The Pittsburgh Steelers may have finished with a modest 9-8 record in 2022 and they are nowhere near as fine-tuned as the San Francisco 49ers when it comes to roster construction. However all of this means nothing when it comes to the Week 1 matchup at Acrisure Stadium. Not only is it a new year, […]
The Pittsburgh Steelers may have finished with a modest 9-8 record in 2022 and they are nowhere near as fine-tuned as the San Francisco 49ers when it comes to roster construction. However all of this means nothing when it comes to the Week 1 matchup at Acrisure Stadium.
Not only is it a new year, but the Steelers have taken down both the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals in the past two season openers.
The common thread with both teams? Both were considered to be Super Bowl contenders coming into those respective seasons, just like the 49ers. And, both teams started off those seasons 0-1 thanks to Mike Tomlin and his squads.
What makes the Steelers' accomplishments even more impressive -outside of the fact that a decrepit Ben Roethlisberger and the ever-inconsistent Mitch Trubisky were the Steelers' QBs at the time-is the Bills and the Bengals were both +6.5 favorites heading into their respective matchups.
Both of those games were road games for the Steelers, too. This year, the 49ers have to travel cross-country to start the year and it's a 1:00pm ET kick. Or in other words, a 10:00am PT kick for the 9ers.
And then there's obviously Tomlin, who typically finds ways to win football games regardless of the circumstances surrounding the Steelers. He's one of the NFL's best coaches and he's going to have his team prepared and ready to go.
When you combine all that with the 49ers' current quarterback conundrum, it's easy to see why they need to be on full-alert come Week 1 and they can't afford to fall into the same opening day Steelers trap that previous contenders did in that last couple years.
