Steelers vs. Chargers 2018 Prediction: Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Will Be Too Much For L.A.

There’s no question regarding what’s the best game on the Week 13 schedule. The Pittsburgh Steelers host the Los Angeles Chargers on “Sunday Night Football” in a potential playoff preview.

If the regular season ended in Week 12, Pittsburgh would host L.A. in the first round of the postseason. The Steelers are the conference’s No.4 seed as the first-place team in the AFC North with a 7-3-1 record. The Chargers are a half-game better than Pittsburgh at 8-3, though they are the No.5 seed and the first wild-card team because the Kansas City Chiefs lead their division.

Pittsburgh is a 3.5-point favorite at home, per OddsShark, which means the two teams are essentially considered to be even on a neutral field. The Steelers are difficult to defeat at Heinz Field, and the Chargers might have trouble keeping pace with one of the NFL’s best offenses.

Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t had one of his best seasons, and the Steelers have been without All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell for the entire year. That still hasn’t stopped the team from being extremely difficult to stop, especially at home.

The Steelers rank fourth in total offense and sixth in the NFL with 28.7 points per game. Pittsburgh is averaging 35.4 points per game at home, and that’s despite one bad performance in which the Baltimore Ravens held them to 14 points. While Roethlisberger has an 87.3 passer rating on the road, he’s thrown 14 touchdown passes and three picks for a 107.9 rating at home. James Conner is averaging 4.4 yards per carry on the road and 4.8 yards per attempt in Pittsburgh.

In a loss at Denver last week and a last-second win in Jacksonville in Week 11, the Steelers scored 37 total points.

Los Angeles can certainly score plenty of points of their own. The Chargers put up 45 unanswered points in their Week 12 win over the Arizona Cardinals, tying them with the New England Patriots for seventh in the league in scoring. Philip Rivers set a record with 25 straight completions to start that game.

Pittsburgh, however, isn’t Arizona, and the Steelers have had one of the NFL’s best defenses since the unit was ripped to shreds in the first few weeks. The Broncos’ 24 points in Week 12 was more points than the Steelers had allowed in any of their previous six contests.

The loss of Melvin Gordon will hurt the Chargers. Los Angeles was held to 20 points in the only game the running back has missed this season.

As well as the Chargers have played, they’ve largely taken advantage of a weak schedule. Aside from a win in Seattle, Los Angeles’ most impressive victory might be their victory in Cleveland.

The Chargers lost handily to the Chiefs and L.A. Rams, who are the only division leaders they’ve faced. They were even upset by the Broncos a couple of weeks ago at home.

Pittsburgh is still alive for a first-round bye and they’ll remain in contention for a top-two seed for at least another week.

Prediction: Pittsburgh over Los Angeles, 31-24