Patriots at Steelers: 'Must-Win' for Coach Bill Belichick, Predicts Rob Ninkovich

Rob Ninkovich harboring the belief that coach Bill Belichick's Patriots are facing a "must-win game" against the 1-0 Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday comes with an important framework.

Is there such a thing as a Week 2 "must-win''?

The circumstances facing the 0-1 New England Patriots have at least one smart critic saying it is so.

"It's a must-win game for the New England Patriots, and I say that because if you start off 0-2 and play the Ravens after that you put yourself in a hole here," said former Patriots defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich on ESPN's Get Up.

Ninkovich harboring the belief that the Patriots are facing a "must-win game" against the 1-0 Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday comes with an important framework.

Rex Ryan is kicking coach Bill Belichick while the Patriots are down, saying the Belichick is to blame for his building of this roster.

LeSean McCoy is kicking Belichick while they're down, saying that in the Ne England post-Tom Brady era, "It's over!''

But Ninkovich, in reviewing what went wrong when the Pats kicked off the regular season with a disappointing performance against the Miami Dolphins, does not have an ax to grind.

He's lived this New England experience.

"They have to win this game on the road. It's going to be a huge matchup," he continued. "It's in a tough environment - Pittsburgh is always a tough team, they're always coached well. So, this is going to be a matchup where they need to fix the mistakes they had in Week 1."

The Patriots, with QB Mac Jones hopefully healthy, are slight favorites over the Steelers heading into this Sunday's game, with kickoff slated for 1 p.m. ET.

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