8 things to watch in NFL’s Week 7: Steelers and Bengals will probably get rowdy

No rivalry in the NFL has been more heated — and filled with nasty hits, both legal and not — than Steelers-Bengals. With both teams trending upward in Week 7, this AFC North showdown should be as vicious as ever.

After an 0-3 start, Cincinnati has won its last two games, albeit against the Browns and Bills. The Steelers bounced back from a resounding loss to the Jaguars by handing the Chiefs their first defeat of the season. With only the Browns out of the race for an underwhelming division title, Sunday’s game could be pivotal when it comes to setting January’s playoff field.

Which is bad news for the referees who’ll have to work in Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. Big games bring out the worst when these two franchises meet. Look no further than the last time they met in the playoffs, where they combined for 18 penalties and Vontaze Burfict’s head-hunting shot on Antonio Brown awarded the Steelers all the field position they’d need to escape Ohio with a victory.

Burfict, a connoisseur of dirty hits and bad judgment, was quick to point out Pittsburgh’s more questionable plays earlier this season. There was an egregious one last week, for which Steelers safety Mike Mitchell has been fined heavily.

Knowing this rivalry, there will be more fines coming for both teams.

After playing the first two NFL London games at Wembley Stadium this season, American football will return to Twickenham Stadium, home to the English National Rugby Union Team. The sport debuted at the venue, located in southwest London, in 2016 as the Giants outlasted the Rams in a sloppy 17-10 slog in which Los Angeles turned the ball over four times.

The Rams can redeem themselves in front of a United Kingdom crowd Sunday when they take on the Cardinals for a primetime -- in London, at least — game. A 7 p.m. start time means Sunday’s game in England won’t force West Coast fans to wake up at 6 a.m. to watch a key divisional matchup.

The fans at Twickenham will get a rare treat when this week’s edition of overseas football features two teams with non-losing records. Los Angeles, at 4-2, can keep its hold on the top spot in the NFC West with a victory. Arizona, fighting off Father Time thanks to a roster whose three top skill players — Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, and Adrian Peterson — are a combined 104 years old, is working to build off last week’s 38-point explosion vs. Tampa Bay.

Peterson, recently acquired from New Orleans, was a major factor in that offensive surge, recording his first 100-yard rushing game since 2015 and adding a pair of touchdowns. He’ll be looking to repeat that performance in a familiar location — the future Hall of Famer had four carries for 4 yards when the Saints played the Dolphins in London back in Week 4.

The Falcons could have walked away with a win in Super Bowl LI if they had just been willing to run the ball in the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead. Atlanta was within comfortable field goal range for kicker Matt Bryant and had four downs to play with.

The first down call was a handoff to Devonta Freeman, who lost a yard. The second and third down play calls were both passes. A sack and a costly penalty knocked the Falcons out of field goal range. They were forced to punt, and you know how the rest of that turned out.

A rematch against the Patriots is looming this week, and the Falcons have an opportunity to make people slow down with the 28-3 jokes. It’s a down year for the Patriots defense, which is ranked dead last in the league and allowing 440.7 yards per game. The run defense comes in at No. 20, with an average of 115.8 yards allowed per game.

The Falcons have one of the best running back tandems in the league in Freeman and Tevin Coleman. That dynamic duo is averaging 120.6 yards per contest, and they should be able to get it done on the ground against the Patriots. If they can balance out Atlanta’s offensive attack to open things up for the pass, Matt Ryan and his receivers could have a field day against the Patriots.

Tony Corrente has led the most talked-about officiating crew in the NFL this fall. It’s not just that Corrente is responsible for a league-high 15.8 flags per game — it’s that he’s found his way behind several controversial calls along the way.

The latest was last week’s non-touchdown in the Patriots Jets game. Austin Seferian-Jenkins appeared to have rolled into the end zone to cut New England’s fourth-quarter led to three points, but Corrente’s crew ruled he fumbled the ball before regaining control after he’d crashed out of bounds. The call gave the Pats the ball at their own 20-yard line and cost New York its best shot at an upset win.

On Sunday, the Seahawks and Giants will be the beneficiary of the Corrente random event generator. Seattle is pretty familiar with Corrente’s end-zone turnover nonsense. His crew was behind the Lions-Seahawks game when Calvin Johnson’s goal-line fumble was batted out of the end zone by K.J. Wright — and failed to call the obvious penalty that would have given Detroit possession at the end of a close game.

The Green Bay backup will be the center of attention Sunday when the Packers play their first game without Aaron Rodgers in the lineup since 2013. Hundley has been a part of the organization since 2015 and had inspired confidence after three years of solid preseason performances. Unfortunately for the Pack, his first real NFL action went poorly — 157 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions against the Vikings.

Typically a date with the Saints defense would be the perfect spot to make adjustments. Unfortunately for Hundley, New Orleans’ pass defense suddenly looks like it has patched up the problems that have plagued the second half of Sean Payton’s tenure. The Saints have only allowed 24 offensive points in their past two games in wins against the Lions and Dolphins, forcing four interceptions in the process.

Hundley will have the advantage of a week’s preparation and a raucous home crowd this week, but his inability to throw passes on-target leaves him with plenty of questions about his viability as a starting quarterback. That could be all the New Orleans defense needs to feast again in Week 7.

Adrian Peterson looked cooked in recent stints with the Vikings and Saints. From the start of an injury-riddled 2016 season to the day he was traded from New Orleans to Arizona, the future Hall of Famer had averaged just 2.4 yards per carry. It looked like time had finally caught up to the 32-year-old tailback.

And then, behind one of the league’s worst offensive lines, Peterson exploded for 134 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He’s played only one game as a Cardinal, and he’s already the team’s leading rusher.

On Sunday, he’ll have the chance to do it again against the Rams and the league’s 29th-ranked rushing defense. With one jaunt into the end zone, he can become just the ninth player in NFL history to score 100 rushing touchdowns. The triple-digit club is full of superstars like Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, and Jim Brown. Peterson’s extensive career has always suggested he be mentioned in the same breath as those legends. In Week 7, he can prove it.

The 49ers saw their quarterback of the future on the field in Week 6. The question is whether it was rookie C.J. Beathard or Washington starter Kirk Cousins.

Beathard, a third-round pick this April, is a low-risk developmental passer San Francisco is hoping can develop into a bonafide starter. He provided a spark last week in his first snaps as a pro, leading San Francisco back from a 17-0 deficit before eventually falling to Washington in a two-point defeat. The Iowa product ran out of steam late in the game but showed enough to supplant Brian Hoyer as the team’s starter.

Now he’ll have a 10-game audition to stake his claim as a franchise building block before what promises to be a busy offseason for general manager John Lynch. The Niners are careening toward the bottom of a 2018 draft class loaded with quarterback talent, and Cousins seems destined to finally hit the free agent market once the books close on the 2017 season. San Francisco will have several options at quarterback in three months — even though right now it’s only got the two.

Beathard will have to impress against a tough Dallas team, and it’s not difficult to question his potential. The rookie wasn’t utilized much in college. In his senior season at Iowa, he threw for just 148 yards per game. Still, he’s in the driver’s seat when it comes to the 49ers’ offense — he just has to take advantage of Sunday’s massive opportunity.

Late in the preseason, the Jets swapped out defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson for Seahawks receiver Jermaine Kearse. It was a move that finally delivered a legitimate receiving threat to a talent-starved depth chart. It also depleted one of the NFL’s least effective defensive lines — and it shows.

New York has played 602 defensive snaps and still has yet to get a sack from any of its defensive linemen. That leaves a pair of Pro Bowlers — Leonard Williams and Muhammad Wilkerson — wondering how things got so bad. The Jets have just seven sacks through six games this fall, and all have come from either linebackers or defensive backs.

Head coach Todd Bowles has chalked the failure up front to an equally unsuccessful rush defense.

“If we stop the run a little better, we can rush the passer a little more,” Bowles said. “Right now, we have some spurts where we did and then had some spurts where we didn’t, so we just have to be more consistent at it and the pass rush will be there.”

On Sunday, they’ll have the chance to sack the mostly immobile Jay Cutler behind a Miami offensive line that’s allowed sacks on nearly 6 percent of his dropbacks. However, if it’s anything like the last time these teams met, the Jets’ defensive linemen will come away with another goose egg.