It’s Steelers vs. Chargers game day!!!
It’s Sunday morning, and I can’t wait until game time. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to arrive.
The weather forecast for Pittsburgh calls for temperatures in the 20′s, but later in the game, the wind chill should make it feel like 18 degrees. That’s perfect Steelers weather. The team has been practicing outdoors this week to acclimate themselves to the conditions. Everybody is healthy, and the Black and Gold is ready to kick some Charger butt.
On the other hand, the Chargers come limping into Heinz Field. LaDainian Tomlinson isn’t going to play. Antonio Gates is hurt (although he is going to play). And Darren Sproles is about to find out that running against the Steelers is a lot more difficult than running against the Colts.
That leaves Philip Rivers as the Chargers’ best hope for victory. Rivers is the NFL’s highest rated quarterback. However, he had his worst game against the Steelers.
Rivers, who was born in Alabama, played all of his childhood football through high school in the warm climate of Alabama. He went to college at North Carolina State, where he played in warm southern temperatures. After college, he went directly to the Chargers and their tropical southern California environment. So basically, we have a kid who has never had to shovel a driveway, has probably never built a snowman, and probably doesn’t own a good pair of winter boots, being called upon to lead the Chargers to victory in chilly winter conditions. That’s like asking an African lion to join a pack of polar bears on a walrus hunt. He’s going to be completely out of his element, and probably won’t excel.
Kickoff is at 4:45PM ET. It’s going to be a good one.
Here we go Steelers, here we go!!!!
In other news, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Tennessee Titans yesterday 13-10. I predicted that was going to happen here (scroll all the way down to the end of the article). I never root for the Ravens. Never. In fact, few things make me happier than seeing the Ravens lose. But on this occasion, I wanted the Ravens to win. The Steelers had a tough time against the Titans. Contrarily, we’ve beaten the Ravens twice this season. Given the choice, I’d rather play the Ravens.
I know that some Steelers fans will say that we shouldn’t avoid tough challenges. Others will say that we should want to play the Titans so we can get revenge for their little towel stomping episode. To all of that, I say “phooey”. This is not the time to be proud. This is the time to be pragmatic.
I don’t care about revenge. At least not right now. Yes, the Titans did stomp on a Terrible Towel. And they’re going to pay for that. But not now. Now is not the time for that. The only thing that matters right now is winning another Lombardi Trophy. And in my opinion, playing the Ravens is a more favorable path to that goal.
If we played the Titans, we would have to play in their house. But now that the Titans are eliminated, any opponent that we play leading up to the Super Bowl will have to come to our house. If we can take care of business today, the road to the Super Bowl goes through Heinz Field. That’s huge.
So bring on the Chargers. And if things go the way that they should, bring on the Ravens. In our house. Beating the Ravens 3 times in the same season will be sweet. Real sweet.
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