Seattle Seahawks At Pittsburgh Steelers Matchup Preview 9/15/19: Analysis, Depth Charts, Betting Picks, Daily Fantasy

Both teams struggled last week, but one came away with a win. Seattle struggled against Cincinnati, and the offense was fairly limited. Pittsburgh struggled on the road against New England, and overall didn’t show up on both sides. Seattle struggled on the road last season, going 4-4, where the Steelers were 5-3 at home. This is going to be an interesting matchup. Pittsburgh come in as slight favorites at -4.5, and the over/under is set at 45.5. This looks like one of those games where we don’t know which team will show up.  For odds line movement, and full matchup history, see the Seattle Seahawks @ Pittsburgh Steelers Matchup Page.

TV Schedule

Date: Sunday, September 15th, 2019
Time: 1:00 ET
Location: Heinz Field – Pittsburgh, PA
Coverage: FOX

Injury Report

Seattle Seahawks: Poona Ford (Q)
Pittsburgh Steelers: Joe Haden (D), T.J. Watt (Q), JuJu Smith-Schuster (P)

Seattle Seahawks Analysis

The Seahawks had a low volume offense in Week 1, which isn’t a huge surprise. However, the 20 pass attempts for Russell Wilson is somewhat of a concern. While he tossed two touchdowns, it was not an appealing game. He had 196 yards as well. DK Metcalf and Chris Carson dominated in targets, well for what they could. Metcalf had a 4-89-0 line on six targets. Chris Carson overall had 21 touches on the day, compiling nearly 100 all-purpose yards and two scores. It was a surprise to see Tyler Lockett with just two targets. The low volume is a bad appeal for fantasy owners of these names, outside of Chris Carson of course. While it wasn’t an effective day running the ball, as the team rushed for 2.9 yards per attempt, we know that commitment will be there.

Seattle’s defense showed some issues in the passing game, allowing Andy Dalton to throw for over 400 yards and two scores. Joe Mixon left the game early, but they held the Bengals running backs to 34 yard on 2.4 attempts. Overall it was a good day for the rush defense, and they were able to get to the quarterback with five sacks. John Ross bruned them for 7-158-2 scores, and they struggled defending both tight ends.

Seattle Seahawks Depth Chart

QB: Russell Wilson
RB1: Chris Carson
RB2: Rashaad Penny
WR1: Tyler Lockett
WR2: DK Metcalf
WR3: Gary Jennings
TE: Will Dissly

Pittsburgh Steelers Analysis

Everything went wrong for the Steelers in Week 1. They gave up 33 points, and failed to top three points of their own. It was a rough day for the offense, and Ben Roethlisberger especially. He was inaccurate, and completed just 27 of 47 passes. Donte Moncrief struggled to catch the ball, which didn’t help either. Both him and JuJu Smith-Schuster led the team in snaps among wide receivers. Vance McDonald saw 70% of the snaps, but had just two catches for 40 yards on four targets. James Washington was sneaky in terms of volume. He played under 50% of the snaps, but had the third highest amount of air yards and six targets. There is some slight concern about Smith-Schuster’s toe, but he seems okay.

James Conner was in a bad game script from the beginning, after being down 20-0 in the first half. He still managed to work himself in the passing game, but overall was a disappointment. It won’t get much easier against the Seattle rush defense, but overall the passing game is in a sneaky good spot if they can get going themselves this week.

Pittsburgh Steelers Depth Chart

QB: Ben Roethlisberger
RB1: James Conner
RB2: Jaylen Samuels
WR1: JuJu Smith-Schuster
WR2: Donte Moncrief
WR3: James Washington
TE: Vance McDonald

Betting Pick: Steelers -4.5

Pittsburgh has covered 73% of the time when at home, and have won 68% of the time when favorited. After a loss they are 9-3, where the Seahawks are 12-11 after a win, and cover 44% of the time when on the road. Pittsburgh is a tough team to trust given the offense was horrific last week and they lost one of the top playmakers over the offseason. Seattle is also in the same boat, with Doug Baldwin gone, and an offense that is focused on just running the football. I do like the Steelers in a bounce back spot here, but covering is a tough ask. This should be a close game, and also I lean slightly to the over.

Daily Fantasy: Tournaments Only

This is just a game to target in tournaments, as both defenses showed some weakness last week. However, the offenses were not great either. With that being said, the Steelers passing attack is worth a look, and thats where I prefer going in tournaments for some lower ownership. JuJu Smith-Schuster is a strong upside play on both sites, and a good stacking partner with Ben Roethlisberger. Vance McDonald is a another buy low option given his snaps were there, but the production wasn’t. Given James Washington’s utilization, I like him as well. Most of these guys can be found in my GPP targets for this week. On the Seattle side, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett have some appeal against a pedestrian Steelers secondary.