PITTSBURGH (at NYJ):
No quarterback has ever been hotter than Ben Roethlisberger. He’s thrown 6 TDs two weeks in a row. So he certainly looks like a capable enough starter. We have no problem rolling him out against a Jets defense that’s allowed multiple touchdown passes in every game this season. But as well as Roethlisberger is playing right now, he needs to be compared against guys like Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. And in that sense, it makes sense to tap the brakes a little. Luck and Brady aren’t playing this week, but we’re putting Roethlisberger behind both Rodgers and Manning. He’s got to show that he can do it on the road. He hasn’t done that yet. The Steelers have played four games on the road, and Roethlisberger has thrown only 4 TDs in those four games.

In our eyes, Roethlisberger played well in only one of those games (he passed for only 196 yards at Carolina, but the Steelers emphasized the run that week). He didn’t get the ball in the end zone effectively enough at either Jacksonville or Cleveland. This is an issue this week, and it’s more of a concern coming up. The Steelers have played their last three at home, so four of their next five are on the road. Our gut feel is that during this run, he’ll be more of a 2-TD guy, rather than a super elite quarterback like Luck, Manning or Rodgers. Circling back to this week, of course, it doesn’t get much more favorable than the Jets. They’ve allowed 24 touchdown passes, 6 more than any other team. Opponents have compiled a league-best 112.8 passer rating against them. So it’s certainly possible that

This report is taken from today's Week 10 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly. The newsletter includes our player rankings and 20 pages of camp reports, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.

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Roethlisberger will crank up another 3-4 TDs. At the same time, however, the Jets are better at home, and they’ve been close to putting together good games numerous times. Aaron Rodgers was on his way to a below-average day against them before he hit an 80-yard touchdown late. Matthew Stafford, similarly, had to turn it on late to finish with 293 yards and 2 TDs. Jay Cutler passed for only 225 yards at the Meadowlands. Peyton Manning passed for only 237 yards but finished with 3 TDs. Similarly, Tom Brady got 3 TDs but only 261 yards. Alex Smith went for only 199 yards last week. While the Jets have lost seven in a row, only 12 teams have allowed fewer passing yards. And they’ve got a strong pass rush, which could bother Roethlisberger at times. We think there’s a sneaky amount of upset potential in this game, so we’re putting Roethlisberger down for only average passing numbers, and we’ve got his average maybe a little lower than you do. About 270 yards and 2 TDs; that’s what we’re thinking. ... LeVeon Bell is on pace for 2,034 yards, yet has scored only 3 TDs. That’s frustrating for his fantasy owners. Great as he is, the Steelers are heavily featuring the pass inside the red zone. They’ve scored 23 of their 26 touchdowns on pass plays. That kind of ratio is unlikely to change this week. The Jets are great against the run, but have some holes in their secondary. Of the 28 touchdowns they’ve allowed, 24 have come on passes. That’s a combined ratio of 47-7 between the two clubs, with over 87 percent of the touchdowns coming on passes. So unlikely that Bell will suddenly bang in a couple of 1-yard touchdowns in this game. His rushing production will probably be off. The Jets have Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson, and those guys are tough to move off the line of scrimmage. But Bell is a Forte-type back, in that he produces as both a runner and receiver. He’s averaging 48 receiving yards per game, and if the running plays aren’t there, he’ll become more of a factor on dumpoff passes. ... As indicated in the Roethlisberger scouting report, we think this is a good enough matchup for the wide receivers, but maybe not quite the home-run situation some are anticipating. The Jets don’t have quite enough talent at cornerback; certainly they don’t have anyone who can hang with Antonio Brown. But we’d feel a lot better about the game if it were being played at Heinz Field. Brown has had at least 5 catches and 80 yards in every game this year, something done previously only by Michael Irvin. But he’s slipped a little as a scorer as the team’s other receivers have emerged. In the first four games of the season, Brown caught 5 of the 6 TD passes Roethlisberger threw. In the last five games, he’s caught only 3 of 17. He’s not the dominant red-zone option anymore that they’re always trying to jam the ball into. Martavis Bryant has moved into the starting lineup, and he’ll score some touchdowns. He’s going to see a lot more single coverage. He’s got the speed to score longer touchdowns, and that 6-foot-4 height makes him an appealing target in the red zone. In the three games Bryant’s played, he’s outscored Brown 5-3. Further down the pecking order, you’ve got Markus Wheaton; he was largely a disappointment as a starter, with too many instances where he wasn’t on the same page with Roethlisberger. He didn’t score in any of the seven games he started. But now that he’s been moved back into the No. 3 role, he’s caught touchdowns two weeks in a row. ... Heath Miller isn’t a huge part of the offense. He’s averaging a modest 45 yards per game, and he’s caught only 2 of their 23 TD passes. But the Jets are so disorganized on defense that they’ll often lose track of tight ends -- blitzing and leaving them completely uncovered, for example. New York has allowed a league-high 11 touchdowns to tight ends, more than twice as many as 24 other teams. Also note that the Jets have allowed more touchdowns to tight ends than wide receivers. In the last seven weeks, the only team that hasn’t thrown a touchdown to a tight end against the Jets has been the one team you would be certain that would (the Patriots, with Rob Gronkowski). ... The raw numbers suggest it’s a great matchup for Shaun Suisham. He’s been a little above-average as a scorer, while the Jets have allowed buckets of points to kickers (9.6 per game). We just wish the Steelers had shown a little better in their earlier road games. In four away from Heinz Field, Suisham has scored 6, 13, 5 and 4 points. ... The Steelers Defense has been a disappointment in recent years; not enough sacks and takeaways. But Michael Vick is the opponent this week, and he tends to be a defense’s best friend. Too often Vick holds the ball and runs around, and he’s a step slower than he was 7-8 years ago. When he’s behind center, the sacks and fumbles tend to pile up. He’s been sacked 25 times in 250 dropbacks the last two years, or once per every 10 attempts. He’s also fumbled 9 times (or about once per game). When Vick started 10-13 games in the 2010-12 seasons with the Eagles, he had 10-11 fumbles in each of those seasons. He’s not as bad with interceptions -- just 4 in 225 passes the last two years. The Steelers have only 16 sacks this year, but they’ve come on a little recently with 2 and 4 sacks the last two weeks against Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco (quarterbacks who are much harder than Vick to sack).