MNF PREVIEW: PITTSBURGH STEELERS AT NEW YORK GIANTS

BY ADAM GREENE

When Monday Night Football premiered on Sept. 21, 1970, it was the NFL’s showcase game. While it might not have always been the best game on the schedule in a given week, it was easily in the Top Three as the network at the time, ABC, had to contend with the NFL’s rights partners for the AFC (NBC) and NFC (CBS) games each week.

MNF was the crown jewel of the NFL’s broadcast juggernaut. If it wasn’t THE big game, it was A big game. The decadent dessert on an NFL weekend well spent. So what the hell happened? How did we go from a schedule that boasted a potential NFL playoff preview every week in 1989 to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the New York Giants to open the season?

It’s a precipitous fall in programming. The move to ESPN in 2006 ruined the brand and the league hasn’t made even the slightest effort to fix it in the 14 years since. And that’s in spite of ESPN laying down $15 billion for the rights to show it the last time the contract came up. That deal wraps in 2021 and ESPN might be smart to request a significantly better slate of games before ponying up that price again.

But here’s what we’re dealing with for Monday Night Football, legitimately one of the worst games on the Week One docket.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS AT NEW YORK GIANTS (+6, O/U: 46)

Location: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

Kickoff: Sept. 14, 7:15 p.m.

Broadcast: ESPN

PITTSBURGH STEELERS (0-0)

Health has been the concern for the Steelers this offseason and we’re not talking about the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nope, it’s all about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was missed 14 games last season with an elbow injury.

Pittsburgh trotted out two quarterbacks, Mason Rudolph and Delvin “Duck” Hodges on their way to an 8-8 finish in 2019 with Roethlisberger out and, really, there’s no way to quantify what anyone did on the team offensively due to that fact. A healthy Roethlisberger would have easily won three more games last season, which is pretty much why everyone, including me, thinks the Steelers will find their way to the postseason this year. But Ben can’t get hurt. It’ll be interesting to see Big Ben back out there and each game with him should be savored, as this is a career in its last years. The Steelers aren’t the problem with this MNF match up…

NEW YORK GIANTS (0-0)

…The Giants are. This is the weakest roster in football. The worst team, on paper, I’ve seen in years. This is an 0-16 roster that won’t go 0-16 simply because that’s such a difficult thing to do in the modern NFL. The fact that two teams (2008 Detroit Lions and 2017 Cleveland Browns) have accomplished it in the last 12 seasons is as incredible an accomplishment as a 16-0 season. It’s that improbable.

It’s no secret why only 13.15 percent of bettors at BetOnline.AG picked New York to win the NFC East. If the Giants were your Madden team, you would replace every starter on the team with free agents with exception of Saquon Barkley and not think another thing about it. This is the team general manager Dave Gettleman decided to go to war with. And he’s already got his quarterback, Daniel Jones, so he’s not “Tanking for Trevor.” He’s just tanking for the hell of it.

THE PICK

If this game was featured on NFL Red Zone for more than five minutes, host Scott Hanson would apologize to the viewer with the explanation that everyone else is either at halftime or between quarters. If it’s close at all, it’ll just be because the weird offseason has everyone sloppy. I think that will be part of it, but don’t be surprised to see Pittsburgh trot out its back up QBs in the fourth to finish this one out. Steelers 33, Giants 10

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