The Rams and the Steelers both continued their 2008 season trends in Week 15. The Steelers turned defeat into victory while the Rams did just the opposite. I was glad for both outcomes. The Steelers clinched the AFC North by beating the Ravens 13-9 to make their fourth consecutive playoff appearance while the Rams lost the tiebreaker with Seattle by getting swept by them, better positioning themselves for the upcoming draft. The Cincinnati Bengals upset the Washington Redskins, giving the Bengals an overall record of 2-11-1, meanin that St. Louis is now tied for the second worst record in the league with the Kansas City Chiefs, trailing just the winless Detroit Lions for the top pick. The Rams now stand a very good chance to pick second in the draft for the second straight year. Jim Haslett may not be around to enjoy it though. Haslett's been the only one enjoying the Rams playbook lately.
The next tiebreaker after win percentage is strength of schedule and the Chiefs' is just barely stronger than the Rams. Both teams' opponents currently are at 100 wins for the season but the Chiefs still have the Bengals on their schedule which means, due to Cincy's tie, Kansas City's opponents have a slightly higher wining percentage for the year. The best-case scenario for the Rams now would be to lose their final two games against the 49ers and Falcons. The Niners lit up the Rams in the first half during St. Louis' visit to San Fran, so it's very possible that the Rams could lose them both. The Chiefs have the Dolphins and Bengals remaining. The Bengals' tie and two wins have all come in their last six games, so they've been playing better lately while the Chiefs just suffered a deflating one-point loss to the Chargers. The Dolphins are in the midst of a three-way tie with the Patriots and Jets for the AFC East title, so they can ill-afford a loss to Kansas City. This is good news for the Rams, as they should "win" the tiebreaker with the Chiefs for the second draft slot next year if those four games go as expected.
The Steelers keep finding ways to win. They were losing with less than 2:30 minutes to go in the last two weeks and came back to win. This last one was even more impressive as Pittsburgh had to do it with a 92-yard drive for the win on a touchdown, albeit a controversial one. Santonio Holmes was in with possession and two feet down. That was obvious. The ball being in, not so much. How the refs overturned it with very limited evidence, I'm not sure, but I'll take it.
It kind of makes up for the Ravens' third field goal-scoring drive when they got a deep completion when there should've been a holding call on one of Baltimore's O-linemen. During the play, I muttered to Laura who wasn't really watching the game that there should be a holding call there. The announcers then went back to look at how good the "block" was and then they agreed that it definitely was holding which the refs didn't call. So you take back the 30 yards for the completion, tack on the 10-yard holding call, that's 40 yards. 40 yards versus the few inches the Steelers would've needed for the touchdown isn't very much. And had the refs got the first call right, the second one wouldn't have mattered, because the Steelers could've kicked another field goal to win it after running the clock down. Pittsburgh had first and goal at about the five yard line, so they could've taken three knees to kill the Ravens' two remaning timeouts and the excess clock, kick a 32-yard field goal and win the game 9-6 instead of 13-9. In this case, two wrongs do make a right.
With this win, the Steelers positioned themselves for the number one seed in the AFC which could be huge. Heinz Field can be one of the toughest places to play in the league, especially for an open-air stadium. So having the road to Super Bowl XLIII go through Pittsburgh would make it even tougher to play against the league's best defense. Pittsburgh is one game behind Tennessee for the top seed, but plays at Tennessee in Week 16. The Titans will be without their top two pass rushers, Albert Haynesworth and Kyle Vanden Bosch, due to injuries. Haynesworth sprained his left MCL on Sunday against Houston and Vanden Bosch has missed three full games and the majority of two others this year due to a groin injury. Strong pass rushes have bothered Ben Roethlisberger all year but Tennessee's simply won't be the same without those two players. That could allow the Steelers' offense to have a big game for the first time since Week 12 against the Bengals. Yes, they scored 33 against New England, but that was primarily fueled by five second-half turnovers by New England, so that's the defense having a big game.
As for the Titans' offense, they'll need a lot of luck to succeed on Sunday. The Steelers haven't allowed 300 yards of offense to a team all year. That ties with the 1973 Rams for the most consecutive games to begin a year with fewer than 300 yards of offense allowed ever. The Titans' offense isn't exactly stellar. Sure, they have two quality runnings backs in Chris Johnson and Lendale White, but teams can't run on the Steelers. Well, certainly Kerry Collins can pick apart their secondary.....HAHA. Good luck with that one. I have a good feeling that Jeff Fisher isn't going to be happy again after this Sunday.
My picks for this Sunday:
Steelers 27 Titans 10
49ers 31 Rams 30 (Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and getting really high draft picks)
