5 NFL teams that must win in Week 3

1. Pittsburgh Steelers

It is officially crisis time in the Steel city. Pittsburgh not only fell to 0-2 last week after losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks, but they lost starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the season with an elbow injury.

The Steelers now have their season’s fate resting in the hands of the untested Mason Rudolph, who performed well in the game against Seattle. Rudolph completed 12 of 19 passes for 112 yards with two touchdowns and one pick, which is an impressive showing against a good defense with very few practice reps.

The Steelers will now treat Rudolph as the starter as they hit the road this week to take on the 2-0 San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers have looked very good over their first two road games of the season, but they didn’t exactly beat tremendous competition in the form of the Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Pittsburgh clearly believes they can win this game and contend this season as evidenced by their trade for Miami Dolphins’ safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Steelers parted with multiple picks, including a 2020 first rounder, to land Fitzpatrick and add a key cog to their secondary.

No team wants to send away a top 10 pick in a trade, so the Steelers need to start winning games now in order to make the Fitzpatrick deal worth it. Pittsburgh’s game with the 49ers is definitely winnable, and they need to take advantage of it in order to keep their season alive.