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Who is playing Sunday Night Football?

This Sunday night could prove to be an important showdown for the early race in the AFC.

By Matt Conner

Las Vegas Raiders v Buffalo Bills
Las Vegas Raiders v Buffalo Bills / Bryan Bennett/GettyImages
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Believe it or not, the Las Vegas Raiders are atop the AFC West these days.

Or course, to be technical, they are tied with the Kansas City Chiefs, they've only played two games, and they look about as reliable for the long-term as the 1980 Chevy Citation hatchback I bought back when I was 16 to serve as my first car. Still, they are there and that makes them in the way, which means Sunday Night Football is quite interesting for our purposes in Week 3.

The Raiders are set to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday evening at Allegiant Stadium and that hold serious sway in both the AFC West and AFC North with a lot of interested franchises watching and waiting for the results.

For the Raiders, a win over the Steelers keeps them with a winning record and atop their own division as they near the end of the first month of the season. A win over the Steelers would also give Josh McDaniels and his coaching staff a cooler seat than he's likely had in some time.

That said, the Raiders are coming off of a legitimate butt-kicking at the hands of the Buffalo Bills a week ago, and Sean McDermott's defense completely shut down Josh Jacobs in the ground game and contained Davante Adams quite well in the passing game. Jimmy Garoppolo simply could not keep up with Josh Allen and company and things got ugly quickly after a one-point season-opening win over the Denver Broncos.

Watch for the Pittsburgh Steelers to stick to the Bill's game plan as much as possible as they try to take out both of those featured stars defensively to force Garoppolo to rise to the occasion. The Steelers certainly have the forces on defense to accomplish such a task, and pass rusher T.J. Watt is playing his best football with 4 sacks and 2 forced fumbles to start the season already. The Raiders line will have their hands full in this matchup.

Can the Raiders add another important conference win to their resume early in '23? Can the Steelers find a winning profile on the back of a strong defense? We'll find out in Week 3 on Sunday Night Football when both teams kick off at 7:20 p.m. C.T. on September 24.