There are only seven more weeks until the NFL regular season ends, and tonight’s matchup is a big one for the AFC playoff standings. The Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Los Angeles Chargers in the Week 11 edition of Sunday Night Football. The game will kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET and will air on NBC. It will also stream on Peacock, NBCSports.com, the NFL App, and Yahoo Sports App.
The Steelers are 5-3-1 on the year and coming off a 16-16 tie against the Detroit Lions. Last week, the Steelers were playing without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger who was on the reserve/COVID-19 list. He will be back with the team tonight as he was activated to the team’s 53-man roster on Saturday.
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“I’ve talked to him every day,” Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada said Thursday, per ESPN. “Talked about the plan, talked about what we’re thinking. Obviously, he’s also met with Sully every day and gone through the specifics of those things. He’s preparing like he’s going to be there and be ready to go. It’s almost exactly like last year. It’s just all Zoom meetings. We’ve all got practice at that. He’s very much engaged, watching practice and knowing what’s going on.”
The Chargers are 5-4 on the year and coming off a 27-20 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. They are currently in seventh place in the AFC standings, so a win tonight would be huge so they can fend off teams like the Las Vegas Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts and Cleveland Browns for the final spot in the playoffs. But one of the challenges for the Chargers tonight is preparing for two quarterbacks, Roethlisberger will be active, but with him not practicing this week, Mason Rudolph could start.
“You have to prepare for both styles,” Chargers head coach Brandon Staley said, per the team’s official website. “I feel like you get a strong sense of how they play with Mason because you have last week to go over, and then last year when he was in the game — you have film of him playing in games. Then, you can certainly watch him in the preseason, just to get a feel for if this offense is really changing for him. They’re a similar style of players. Mason’s a big statured guy. He has a very good arm, has enough mobility, like Ben. I think that we have a good plan for both guys. We’re going to have to prepare that way.”
