Wild Card game sees Division foes renew their rivalry

Article by Gordon Dedman

While each season the AFC North division play in the shadow of the AFC East and the New England Patriots, the North still produces solid, blue collar football. Sunday will showcase the division at its the best when the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to the Cincinnati Bengals in a winner takes all wildcard game.

I could produce every kind of stat that will suggest this team or that team will win, but you can throw the stats out of the window for this one. It will be a tense physical contest.

 

Before the regular season game in Cincinnati kicked off, these two teams confirmed what this rivalry now means when they created quite a spat as their pre-match warm up heated up. Apparently the NFL has warned both teams against repeating the fracas this weekend, especially before a national television audience.

The winner Saturday night will be the team that holds its nerve in the high pressure cauldron that will be Paul Brown Stadium. I’m amazed to see the bookies make the Steelers favourites, but is that because it appears to be men against boys with AJ McCarron as the Bengals quarterback?

In Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers have one of the league’s premier quarterbacks with the ability to turn a game in an instant. He can make unbelievable passes and has the capability to thread the ball through a defense to his receivers.  He can also throw interceptions.

Antonio Brown is Ben’s favourite receiver and has set an NFL record this season by catching 135 passes for the second year running, but the stats show that Antonio Brown has not scored a touchdown in the playoffs. It’s the one accomplishment missing from his résumé while this month he became the first wide receiver to be honoured as the AFC Offensive Player of the Month three times.

Turnovers will again be the key. McCarron hasn’t thrown an interception in 83 pass attempts since he threw two against the Steelers when making his debut for the injured Andy Dalton in Week 14. McCarron has made his mark as the first Bengals quarterback not to have thrown an interception in their first three starts.

McCarron has been taught not to give the ball away to his opponent and the tutelage is obviously working for the youngster while Ben Roethlisberger has thrown two interceptions in each of his last three games.

 

As Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats observed, “I feel like as long as we play our game, don’t turn the ball over, and create turnovers, we match up with any team.”

Cincinnati’s Pro Bowl safety Reggie Nelson offered, “It should be one hell of a game. The last game (December 13) was a terrible one for us, and this time we want to make it a good one. I think a lot of people are going to enjoy this.”

I think the neutrals might just be hoping he’s right. It’s going to be a tough demanding game and should advertise the quality of football in the division.

As I write there are a couple of unknowns, besides who is going to win. It looks unlikely that either DeAngelo Williams for the Steelers or Andy Dalton for the Bengals will play, but if they do it is possible they could make an impact.