As you already know, the Baltimore Ravens are on their bye week so we won't see any game action from them today. The Steelers, however, are headlining the 8:15 Sunday Night Football matchup in New Orleans against the (4-3) Saints tonight.
The sights Saints fans, Ravens fans and many others desire to witness is Drew Brees getting the best of Pittsburgh's stingy defense and the Steelers offense underperforming and keeping the game close.
If the Saints win, Pittsburgh is (5-2) and falls behind Baltimore in the standings because of Baltimore's .5 game lead over the Steelers.
Right now the Steelers sit atop of the AFC North with a 5-1 record losing only to Baltimore in the week four, the last game of Ben Roethlisberger's four game suspension. Many prospected the Steelers to be almost unstoppable once their field general returned and so far they have been such beating Cleveland in convincing fashion and holding on tightly to a win in Miami versus the Dolphins.
New Orleans on the other hand has been leaning on a bit of a Super Bowl hangover. Their losses to division rival Atlanta Falcons, mediocre NFC West contender Arizona Cardinals and the gradually improving Cleveland Browns prove that they are not an elite team right now. Their less than stellar record can be contributed to their deplorable -4 turnover differential.
Drew Brees has thrown a tremendous 14 touchdowns but also a hindering 10 interceptions. Only four players on the defense have grabbed an interception this year but none of them have more than one. The defense as a whole has forced 13 fumbles but only recovered five of them. Forcing turnovers will be imperative for New Orleans to win at home tonight.
The quarterback on the other side of the field flaunts a 122.4 quarterback rating. He has thrown five touchdowns, only one interception and for a total of 559 passing yards. The most impressive thing about these numbers is the short time span in which these numbers have been posted. Roethlisberger has started only two games this season after sitting out the first four. Clearly not an ounce of rust has accumulated on his throwing arm.
Most people don't know that New Orleans possesses the number three total defense in the league. They are only relinquishing 179.7 yards/game and 288 total yards/game. These figures can be perceived as overevaluated since the Saints have faced only one quarterback this year with a status and accomplished resume comparable to Ben Roethlisberger, that man is Brett Favre.
Keeping the Steelers to only 74 passing yards, a feat they reached against the Browns last week, will be virtually impossible tonight. Roethlisberger's passing yards will reach rather significant figures with the help of Hines Ward, Mike Wallace and his extraordinary run game lead by Rashard Mendenhall.
Maybe I'll purchase a Saints jersey and proclaim to everyone that my disdain for the Steelers runs deep. Of course I'll have to torch it before their week 15 game against the Ravens but for tonight the name of the game is “Lose Steelers Lose”.
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