Read this and tell me why anyone WOULDN'T pick PIT
Chairman,
I appreciate your breakdown and I would never say the Steelers should be taken lightly, especially since this game is in their house; however, my main problem with your arguement is the claim that Pittsburgh has faced a tougher schedule than we have.
You cite the following as toughest opponents:
"Pittsburgh's 4 toughest opponents have been Cincy, Denver, at JAX, and at San Diego (all losses)
NO's 4 toughest opponents have been Baltimore, Philly, at Carolina and who? One of the Tampa games, I guess?"
First of all, the Roadkill are 5-3, so they are the 4th in the toughest opponents column for the Saints. Did we maul them? Yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't a tough opponent.
Their toughest opponents:
Cincy 4-4 (and in the midst of a finger-pointing breakdown)
Denver 6-2 (rolling)
Jacksonville 5-3
San Diego 6-2
Our toughest opponents:
Baltimore 6-2
Philly 4-4
Mylanta 5-3
Carolina 4-4
Also pretty even, though I would argue Carolina is better than their record indicates and Jacksonville is not nearly as good as their record indicates. LSSpam has already mentioned the loss to the Raiders by the Steelers (we've not had the luxury of facing a team as bad as the Raiders) and the skewed stat of points by two games (KC and Baltimore).
My point is I don't think Pittsburgh has had a tougher schedule. They lost all four of their tough games, we went 2-2 in ours. We have the edge there and in the all-important stat of turnovers. Yes, take away the turnovers and Pitt's record probably reverses to 6-2, but take away turnovers and we beat the Ravens easily, probably beat the Panthers as well (we only had one turnover, but in a game that close, it might have swung it our way). Thing is, you can't remove the turnovers. Turnovers matter hugely and will likely have a big outcome in the game Sunday as well.
Make no mistake, Black & Gold faithful, the Steelers are a tough team, the Chairman is right to point that out, but they definitely have some issues that we can exploit. I'm sure they feel the same about our team. We'll see who's better at accomplishing that on Sunday.