The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview by Rich Hribar, breaking down everything you need to know for the Week 14 Pittsburgh Steelers at Minnesota Vikings Thursday Night Football game.
| Pittsburgh | Rank | @ | Minnesota | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | Spread | -3.5 | ||
| 20.5 | Implied Total | 24 | ||
| 20.3 | 21 | Points/Gm | 25.7 | 11 |
| 23.8 | 21 | Points All./Gm | 25.4 | 25 |
| 64.6 | 11 | Plays/Gm | 66.1 | 6 |
| 63.8 | 20 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 65.8 | 26 |
| 5 | 27 | Off. Yards/Play | 5.8 | 7 |
| 5.7 | 23 | Def. Yards/Play | 5.8 | 26 |
| 36.65% | 27 | Rush% | 40.98% | 17 |
| 63.35% | 6 | Pass% | 59.02% | 16 |
| 42.95% | 19 | Opp. Rush % | 42.21% | 17 |
| 57.05% | 14 | Opp. Pass % | 57.79% | 16 |
- Minnesota games are averaging a league-high 131.8 combined offensive plays per game.
- The Vikings have had the ball with the lead in a league-high 11 games this season.
- The Vikings have allowed a touchdown on 26.7% of opponent red zone plays, 31st in the league.
- The Steelers lead the league in passing rate inside of the red zone (69.1%).
- Over the past three weeks, the Steelers (20.7%) and Vikings (22.2%) are the bottom two teams in the league in the percentage of yardage to come via rushing.
- 90.4% of the rushing attempts against Minnesota have gained positive yardage, the highest rate in the league.
- 33.3% of Ben Roethlisberger's pass attempts are on first downs, ahead of only Matt Ryan (31.2%) and Tyrod Taylor (28.7%).
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Kirk Cousins: With 20.2 fantasy points, Cousins delivered his fifth scoring week inside of the top-10 over his past seven starts Sunday against the Lions.
This Thursday provides a matchup that can be a thorn for Cousins if the Steelers are able to get home like they did last week when they pressured Lamar Jackson on 44.7% of his dropbacks. Minnesota has been able to do a good job keeping Cousins clean, but when pressure has gotten home he has been disrupted. Cousins has been pressured on 32.7% of his dropbacks (21st), but his -2.9 yards per pass attempt under pressure (5.5 Y/A) compared to kept clean (8.4 Y/A) are the 36th largest differential among 39 qualifiers. Keeping Cousins clean and getting to Cousins will be the name of the game for both sides.
We also have Minnesota here down two of their best offensive players with the loss of Adam Thielen. Justin Jefferson is an excellent player that can carry Cousins, but this also is not the bottom-rung Lions defense, even if the Steelers have taken a step back in 2021 compared to previous seasons. Pittsburgh is 14th in passing points allowed per game (14.8), which is right about where I am treating Cousins this week as a higher-end QB2.
