for the first time in almost a month to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2-1) at TIAA Bank Field at 1:00pm EST.With the game being flexed from its original Sunday Night Football prime time slot https://www.jaguarsfanstore.com , anyone not going to the game will have Romo and Nantz on the CBS call. UNIFORM WATCH: Debut of the best uniform from all the new thread combinations. OpponentThe Steelers are red hot coming into Duval County on a five game win streak, most recently dismantling a very good Carolina Panthers team on Thursday Night Football in Pittsburgh. This means that Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff had two extra days to help prepare for this game against their kryptonite Jaguars while Doug Marrone and his crew were supposedly cramming for the Colts on Friday and Saturday. Last year, the Jaguars defense forced a handful of Big Ben turnovers in the regular season and then the Steelers got caught looking ahead to the Patriots in the playoffs. Notice all has been quiet from Pittsburgh on the bulletin board material front this week... Offensively for the Steelers, it’s been no Le’Veon, no problem this season. Second-year running back James Conner is third in the NFL with 771 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, and the Steelers offense has statistically been even more efficient without Bell in the lineup, especially in the red zone. Ben Roethlisberger is playing at an MVP level and is coming off a career performance last week where he had a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating and five touchdowns against a good Panthers defense. The biggest difference for the Steelers this year has been the quality of new offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, who replaced Todd Haley in the offseason. Fichtner has placed more of an emphasis on spreading the football around to different receivers outside of Antonio Brown and using a ton of tight ends Vance McDonald and Jesse James, which is bad news for the Jaguars if you saw last week’s game. Juju Smith-Schuster is technically the No. 2 wide receiver, but he leads the NFL in production out of the slot this season and will routinely line up inside to exploit mismatches. Defensively, the Steelers have mixed it up as the season has gone on, and the moves seem to have paid dividends. T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree have flip-flopped sides and Watt now rushes from the left outside linebacker spot and Dupree from the right in their 3-4 defense, combining for 12.5 sacks on the season. The Steelers have also moved second year player Sean Davis to the strong safety position vacated by the infamous Mike Mitchell and they’ve gone with a rotation of rookie first round pick Terrell Edmunds and veteran Morgan Burnett at the free safety spot. The Steelers also benched former first round pick Artie Burns at right cornerback and replaced him Coty Sensabaugh, and the pass defense has improved since making the move and (former Jaguar) Mike Hilton continues to be one of the best nickel cornerbacks in the NFL. Inside linebacker and team leader Vince Williams is having a good season Jacksonville Jaguars Customized Jerseys , but the spot next to him currently played by Jon Bostic is in need of a desperate upgrade in the offseason. The Steelers are vulnerable in their secondary and the Jaguars should try to run right at Bostic when rushing the football on Sunday.Check out Ryan O’Bleness’ cross-over piece with Jeff Hartman of Behind the Steel Curtain for more information about the opponent.StorylinesOf course, the major storyline for the Steelers all season has been the status of Le’Veon Bell, who finally did not report to the Steelers before the deadline and will not be eligible to play for the remainder of the 2018 season. For Bell’s teammates, this seems to be some necessary closure as they can now focus on the players they have as they look to make a playoff run.For the Jaguars, the major storyline has been the five game losing streak and what they need to do to get out of their funk. Defensively, they had more busted coverages than a high school team and Jalen Ramsey today refuted the allegations that he was playing his own rogue coverages despite Doug Marrone publicly blaming him for a couple of the busts earlier this week. If the communication issues in the secondary don’t improve this week with A.J. Bouye (hopefully) back in the line up, expect Todd Wash’s seat to get awfully toasty. Whether Wash is making the wrong calls, the players are unprepared or miscommunicating before the snap, or players are just straight up disrespecting him and doing whatever they want, it’s all a bad look for him.Offensively, Nathaniel Hackett’s play calling has been much more balanced since Leonard Fournette’s return to the line up, and that has elevated the production of the passing game. Despite eclipsing 100 scrimmage yards and finding the end zone twice, Fournette looked hesitant and, quite frankly Jacksonville Jaguars T-Shirts , pretty slow running the football for a miserable 2.2 yards per carry. Fournette registered the fastest timed speed in the NFL last year against the Steelers — can he do it again on Sunday and prove to everyone that his first game back was a byproduct of rust? I sure hope so.Key matchupsJalen Ramsey vs. Antonio BrownThis is a big week for Ramsey, who found himself in hot water from not only his coaches, but the fans as well with his cryptic tweet. Ramsey has not played up to the exceedingly high expectations that 2.0 set for himself before the season, and he gets to face off against a top-three receiver in the NFL this week. Brown is one of the few NFL receivers who Ramsey has a ton of respect for, and historically, Brown has put up some pretty good production against the Jaguars despite losing efforts. With Bouye hampered by a calf injury, expect Ramsey to follow Brown around the field.A.J. Bouye/D.J. Hayden vs. Juju Smith-SchusterWhile Ramsey will be responsible for Brown, the Jaguars have a litany of other issues to worry about with all the weapons that the Steelers have surrounded Big Ben with. One of those weapons is Juju Smith-Schuster, who as mentioned above, leads the league in production out of the slot. My initial thought is that Bouye sticks with Smith-Schuster when he’s lined up on the perimeter and Hayden will pick up the slack when Juju moves inside. Don’t be surprised if Smith-Schuster leads all Steelers receivers in targets on Sunday. Leonard Fournette vs. Vince WilliamsThe bummer of the week is that we won’t get another Leonard Fournette moment against Mike Mitchell, but there’s another vocal Steelers player that could make Leonard’s life difficult. Williams has dialed up his play over the last few weeks and it would be wise of the Jaguars to scheme their runs away from him this week. With Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt lined up across from Andrew Norwell and A.J. Cann, expect another long day at the office for Fournette.Ereck Flowers vs. Bud DupreeEreck Flowers was kind of, sort of, maybe good last week? He’s dealing with tendinitis in his knee https://www.jaguarsfanstore.com/hats , but should be a big upgrade over the injured band aid Josh Walker who has struggled playing out of position since Josh Wells went down with a groin injury. I wrote in this week’s piece that this could be a big audition for Flowers to potentially be the Jaguars’ swing tackle in 2019. This is either going to go really well or really poorly, but either way, buckle up.Yannick Ngakoue vs. Alejandro VillanuevaNgakoue has not had the sacks and fumbles that we are accustomed to seeing, but did you know that the Jaguars actually lead the league in pressures? Ngakoue has a lot to do with that, and it feels like he’s just getting there a half second too late. Life doesn’t get much easier for Yannick this week against Alejandro Villanueva, who is having a terrific season for the Steelers as a pass blocker. As big as Roethlisberger is, I’m not anticipating Ngakoue to show up on the sack sheet (Ben has only been sacked 12 times this year), but his pressure will hopefully affect Ben and cause some rushed throws into double coverage or maybe even one of those world-famous strip fumbles. Myles Jack/Telvin Smith vs. James ConnerThe Steelers know that Ben traditionally struggles with the Jaguars defense, so expect a heavy does of James Conner this week. The Jaguars linebackers have played poorly over the past few games with Myles losing track of his run fits and Telvin getting beat in coverage, so this could be a good day to start Conner if you have him in fantasy. Final predictionCtrl+C, Ctrl+V. Copy, paste. If the Jaguars can get an early lead and maintain possession by running the football and keep the ball out of Roethlisberger’s hands, they have a chance. If the Steelers get off to an early lead and force Blake Bortles to start throwing it all over the yard, forget it. Considering how the Jaguars defense played last week against a Colts team with limited threats at wide receiver Jacksonville Jaguars Hoodie , why should anyone be confident that they will be able to blanket the Steelers’ weapons? The problem with how this team is constructed (run the ball, play defense, kill clock) in the modern passing area of football is that the margin for error is so small. I think the Steelers win 42-24. Adam Schefter said on ESPN this morning the word around the league is that the Jacksonville Jaguars may consider trading Jalen Ramsey this offseason.Really. A real thing said.Tom Coughlin, the same man who extended right-handed Tim Tebow and drafted a fragile running back over two ascending quarterbacks, wants to trade Jalen Ramsey. One of the few competent things about the team and they want him gone because of his mouth.Blake Bortles and Taven Bryan are some of the worst players on the team, but they toe Tom’s company line and are complete doofuses, so their spots are fine.Dave Caldwell, the same man who drafted one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL at third overall and drafted a mega bust defensive end from Florida, wants to trade away literally his only good first round pick ever.The bad players on this team never get held accountable, and the good ones get threatened to ship off for not towing company lines. If this is something that actually happens it would be the first time I’d advocate for fans to divorce themselves from the team. They should help the team pack for London. Football would be dead in Jacksonville — and Tom Coughlin and Dave Caldwell will be who killed it.