Steel City SHOWDOWN
Giants ride into Steel City looking to extend streak
will not be waiting in ambush, Big Ben and Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell will be, and they should be approached as the modern-day versions of Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and Franco Harris.
Some unsolicited advice for the Giants: Score 30 points or more for the first time this season. Unleash a killer instinct, finally. The rookies cannot be rookies anymore, the head coach included.
Play loose and have fun and play to win. If Mike Tomlin goes for two, McAdoo shouldn’t shy away from going for it on fourth down.
The Giants won’t win this game unless they play their best game of the season.
They won’t win this game unless their seven biggest players play their biggest games of the season.
Since this is no Steel Curtain, not even close, because the Giants cannot run the ball, no one should be surprised if a shootout were to unfold.
Which would mean Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. will be asked to lead the way more than ever, for this underachieving offense will need to do its part the rest of the way so the burden of finishing games stops falling on Big Blue. Manning and Beckham don’t only have to take what the Steelers give them, there will be occasions when they will have to take what they want.
Manning will be facing the league’s 23rd-ranked pass defense, and the fifth cornerback (Artie Burns) drafted in the first round, 15 slots behind Eli Apple. He has thrown five touchdowns without an interception over the past two weeks, but cannot be content merely playing error free in this one.
Beckham needs to be targeted early and often again and again and again. And if Brown is a punt-return weapon for Tom- lin, then Beckham should be a punt return weapon for McAdoo.
This isn’t Case Keenum on the other side. It isn’t Jay Cutler. It isn’t Josh McCown. Roethisberger is the third future Hall of Fame quarterback on the schedule. Manning was 32-for-41 for 368 yards but no TDs in the 16-13 win over Drew Brees. He was 18-for-35 for 199 yards and one TD in the 23-16 loss to Aaron Rodgers’ Packers. More will be needed from him against Roethlisberger.
For all their brilliance to this point, the demands on Jerry Reese’s high-ticket free agents to play Moneyball only will mushroom.
Which would mean Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon, Damon “Snacks” Harrison and Janoris “Jackrabbit” Jenkins will all have to raise their game.
JPP has 5.5 sacks in his past two games. Giants notes / Page XX He can smell the playoffs and the big- money extension that awaits him. But the Steelers’ offensive line has surrendered just one sack in its past three games.
Vernon has five sacks in his past four games. He can smell his first playoff berth. But the Steelers’ offensive line has allowed just 14 sacks.
“Snacks” was signed to stop elite running backs such as Bell. When McAdoo talks of a heavy-handed team, this is exactly who and what he means in the trenches.
“Jackrabbit,” who has been a lockdown corner, has a better shot of keeping Brown from another explosion than anyone in the Steelers’ secondary has of keeping Beckham from one.
Last, but not least, the Giants need Defensive Player of the Year candidate Landon Collins, who has all five of his interceptions in the past five games, to come up big. steve.serby@nypost.com