Steelers vs. Hated Ravens Preview

You know what? I don't care if this game doesn't have really anything to do with seeding. I don't care that San Diego is most likely going to crush Oakland and young JaMarcus Russell and clinch the 3rd seed and there's nothing we can do about it.

It's the hated Ravens. We need to win this game. We need to try. We can't rest our starters.

Aside from the fact that Roethlisberger needs to keep sharp and Davenport needs to get his timing down with the offensive line, we've kind of sucked ass on both sides of the ball the last three games and can't mail this one in.

And, well, it's the frickin' hated frickin' Ravens. We need to blow these guys out, right? We need to make up for last season, right? We can't just beat them, we need to destroy them like they destroyed us last year. Twice. We already kicked the shit out of them on Monday Night Football when Weidman and I met Hank Williams, Jr. We need to complete the set.

Say what you will about this being a divisional game and it's important for them to play the spoiler and we're all professionals here and they still have their pride. I'm sure there's some validity to that.

But, the hated Ravens' season was on life support prior to the game against the Patriots. The Pats took their season, pulled the plug, incinerated it, fed the ashes to a dog, took the poopy ashes and incinerated those, then ran a magnet over the ashey poopy ash. Okay? They've been getting absolutely humiliated ever since that game. They have nothing left. Their guys are probably going to walk off the field, strip down in the tunnel, then walk through the locker room and into their cars. No shower, no closing remarks by Billick. Nothing.

If anything, pride, professionalism, divisional rivalry, those factors are going to make them try for the first quarter. If we jump on them early, they may as well get in their cars and go home for the off-season, because that's where they'll be in their mind's eye.

Seriously, fourth seed or third seed or whatever... we need another old-school whipping of these guys to get some momentum going into the playoffs.

We'll probably play Batch most of the game, but that might be a good thing. Najeh needs to get some work, but we'll probably come out throwing, since their secondary has been ravaged by injuries and we've never been able to run the ball against them.

And, they're starting Troy Smith instead of Boller or McNair. Smith's about four feet tall and appears to have borrowed Brad Johnson's right arm circa 2004. He's a fast, little dude and he's got a lot of confidence and intangibles... but he's four feet tall and has Brad Johnson's arm. And Willis McGahee probably won't play. And their season with the ashey poopy ash.

Please. For the love God. We need to crush these guys. We deserve it. They deserve it. I need a blowout here to keep hope alive for the playoffs.