polamalubeast
12-28-2011, 05:29 PM
Forgive the Steelers if they look a little cockeyed Sunday in Cleveland, one eye on the Browns and the other on the scoreboard.
Under similar conditions in the past when playing at home, the Steelers would not show the score from the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals on their scoreboard, but the Browns are in control, and, at 4-11, they have no ulterior motive.
The Steelers have clinched a wild-card spot but will earn a playoff bye and a week's rest -- especially for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger -- if they win in Cleveland and the Ravens lose in Cincinnati.
"Of course, I'm going to be rooting for it," linebacker Larry Foote said of a Cincinnati victory. "I know the Bengals are going to be fighting for the playoffs themselves. This will be a big game."
If the Bengals win, both wild-card teams in the AFC will come from the North Division. The Steelers hope the Ravens are the ones in that other wild-card spot.
The Steelers also know there are many different paths to the Super Bowl because they have followed them. They got there and won it as the sixth and last seed in the 2005 season, the first to do it. Although the New York Giants ('07) and Green Bay Packers ('10) have since followed that same path, the Steelers know which is the more direct and best route. The New England Patriots were the only other wild-card team to win all their playoff games on the road, in the 1985 season, but were trampled by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX.
Other than '05, the Steelers made their other seven Super Bowl visits as division champs. The only way the fifth seed can have a home game would be if the sixth seed also won its first two games, putting the AFC championship in the fifth seed's city, which has never happened.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11361/1199480-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz1hsJXm6Cb
Under similar conditions in the past when playing at home, the Steelers would not show the score from the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals on their scoreboard, but the Browns are in control, and, at 4-11, they have no ulterior motive.
The Steelers have clinched a wild-card spot but will earn a playoff bye and a week's rest -- especially for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger -- if they win in Cleveland and the Ravens lose in Cincinnati.
"Of course, I'm going to be rooting for it," linebacker Larry Foote said of a Cincinnati victory. "I know the Bengals are going to be fighting for the playoffs themselves. This will be a big game."
If the Bengals win, both wild-card teams in the AFC will come from the North Division. The Steelers hope the Ravens are the ones in that other wild-card spot.
The Steelers also know there are many different paths to the Super Bowl because they have followed them. They got there and won it as the sixth and last seed in the 2005 season, the first to do it. Although the New York Giants ('07) and Green Bay Packers ('10) have since followed that same path, the Steelers know which is the more direct and best route. The New England Patriots were the only other wild-card team to win all their playoff games on the road, in the 1985 season, but were trampled by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX.
Other than '05, the Steelers made their other seven Super Bowl visits as division champs. The only way the fifth seed can have a home game would be if the sixth seed also won its first two games, putting the AFC championship in the fifth seed's city, which has never happened.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11361/1199480-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz1hsJXm6Cb