Steelers vs. Broncos Preview

I know, I know. I skipped the Review for the ass-thumping that we handed to the hated Ravens on Monday night. But, I got busy and, aside from writing, "Holy shit! We really kicked the hell out of those bastards!" a hundred times, I didn't have that much to cover.

Doesn't mean there weren't highlights...

• Weidman and I met Hank Williams, Jr. The man, the myth, the dude that does the Monday Night Football song. We were riding in the elevator to go get some wings and two guys walked in, talking on cell phones. Then Hank rolled in. Then Weidman and I looked at each other. And we both had that, "Hey, uh... that's Hank Williams, Jr., right? That's really him, right?" look about us. He was wearing a Steelers jacket, so Weidman complemented him on it. I tried to tell Hank a story, but was already incomprehensibly hammered and only ended up confusing him. As a matter of fact, Weidman only understood "West Virgina" out of my 30 seconds or so of blathering.
• So, the way I figured it, it's a Monday Night game, we met Hank Williams, the 75th anniversary team was going to be on the field at halftime, and I'm undefeated when I see the Steelers play live. That was just too much for the hated Ravens to overcome.
• I have a REALLY bad feeling they're going to be very pissed off the next time we see them. Hopefully, we'll have the division locked up by then, so we'll rest all our starters and they won't have a chance to jam a shiv in Hines' kidney.

Onto the Cleveland game.

This game scares the shit out of me, yet doesn't scare me at all. It's weird.

On the one hand, we absolutely embarrassed them in the opener (in Cleveland) and it's not like they added four Pro Bowlers since then. It's all the same guys. On the other hand, the same guys have gone 5-2 since then are now playing way better than they were before.

They're fired up, the division is on the line, and we beat the shit out of them in their house, so why wouldn't they want to return the favor?

The match-ups are the same as they've always been. We don't have anyone that can cover Winslow Jr. or Braylon Edwards one-on-one, but if we double those guys, we can make Jamal Lewis and Joe Jurevicious beat us. And, really, they can't.

Previously, we could count on their offensive line sucking and Charlie Frye being so bad that he had his own drinking game. I'm not saying Derek Anderson is the next Tom Brady, but he's certainly doing well for himself now. If we can kick him in the teeth early, I think we can have him hearing footsteps by halftime.

But, that's all on the outside linebackers. I love James Harrison, but he's not having another game like he did against the hated Ravens. Ever. That's a once-in-a-lifetime deal. He's better than Porter at this point, but he's still not too much better than Haggans (who sucks, but that's just my opinion).

The Browns aren't going to be able to run the ball (they couldn't even run against Seattle and Lewis hasn't been the same since he got out of prison). They'll need to pass. They know this. They're going to come out slinging the ball all over the field. It wouldn't surprise me if they came out with a 3 or 4 wide receiver formation. They know they can't run, they know we can't cover Winslow and Edwards, and they'll be really fired up (especially considering this is the biggest game for them since the 2002 Wildcard Playoff Game).

They're going to come out and try to score 14 points on every drive. They're going to try to make it 84-0 with three minutes gone in the first quarter. They are going to be ready.

The best thing we can do is withstand their best shot and beat them into submission after they realize that they haven't knocked us down. We've got a better team. We're more physical. We'll be able to run and throw the ball at will. We'll be able to stop the run. The only thing we can't do (provided the linebackers come back down to earth) is stop their passing game. If that gets hot early, we're in for a long day. At that point, it's kind of up to Tomlin and the rest of the guys on the roster to get back up after the Browns knock them down. They kinda stepped back up in Denver, but ended up falling short. And, even though the offense is improved (especially in the passing game), this still isn't a team that's built to come from behind.

But, really, even if they jump on us early, we can still win. Cleveland's not a team that can finish someone off the way that we finished off the hated Ravens on Monday.

They're not going to be nice enough to turn the ball over 45 times in the first six minutes like we were last time, but I still think we can kick the shit out of them if they don't.

So, either we lose a close one, we win a close one (after coming back - kinda like the 24-20 win last year), or we blow them out. We're not getting blown out in this one. Not by this team.

I have a feeling, though, that Tomlin will have his boys ready.

Prediction: Steelers 31, Browns 14