Week 7– Pittsburgh Steelers at Atlanta Falcons
Opening Line: Steelers -1.5
Sunday, 1:00 pm Eastern
CBS

Falcons look to rebound against the Super Bowl Champs.

The defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers showed last week that they are still a team to be feared. The Steelers seek their first road win of the season Sunday when they travel to the Georgia Dome to take on the Atlanta Falcons. Even though the Steelers are winless on the road, SBG Global reports that the public is still pounding the Champs.

A big key to the game will be whether or not Pittsburgh can stop the run. Atlanta already has 1,160 rushing yards this season, nearly 400 more than any other team in the league. No team has averaged more than 200.0 rushing yards over a full season since the Chicago Bears posted 200.8 in 1977. Warrick Dunn ranks fifth in the NFL with 511 rushing yards while Michael Vick has 401. ''You don't see the option draw that they run, where (Vick) puts the ball in the hands of Warrick Dunn and then reads things,'' Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher said. ''It's the kind of thing you see in college. You kind of enjoy watching it on Saturday afternoon. Then you say, 'Boy, I'm glad I don't have to defend that.' Now I'm going to have to defend that.'' The Steelers (2-3) have done a good job defending the run so far this season, allowing opponents 78.4 yards on the ground.

Pittsburgh is a 2.5 point favorite with a total of 37 at SBG Global.

Pittsburgh Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw his first two touchdown passes since last season's AFC championship game and completed 16 of 19 pass attempts for a season-high 238 yards last week. ''I think sometimes Ben takes too much on his shoulders,'' Cowher said. ''It was good to see him have some success. He's taken a lot of criticism in the last couple of weeks, and I'm very proud of him being accountable. He stood up to it all.''

''Last week was, I thought, our most complete game of the season and certainly one that was much needed,'' Cowher said Tuesday. ''But as we talked about, nothing has changed. We've put ourselves in the situation now to see if we can sustain that. We're going down to a tough place. Atlanta's a good team and they're coming off a tough loss.''

The Falcons (3-2) took a 14-3 lead early in the third quarter against the New York Giants last Sunday but ended up losing 27-14. ''You have to realize it's one game,'' Falcons coach Jim Mora said. ''You can't just trash everything and panic and lose perspective on the direction you're heading. You've got to try to find a balance in there. ... You never ignore the deficits that you have or the problems that you have, but you don't just push the panic button.''

The Falcons play all four AFC North teams in a five-week stretch. Atlanta travels to Cincinnati to face the Bengals next week, and has another road game at division-leading Baltimore on Nov. 19. ''Nothing is getting easier,'' Dunn said. ''When you play those types of teams - the Giants, Steelers, Bengals - it's going to be a physical football game each week.''

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