With one more game left to be played, the road to the number two seed and a first round bye for the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn’t be clearer.  Win at Cleveland and it’s a done deal.  Although rivalry games are usually cause for concern, we could not have chosen a better opponent.  Not only are the Browns a mediocre team, their soul-crushing upset of the Steelers last season is still fresh on the Black and Gold’s mind which means they will be ultra-focused this weekend.

Brady Quinn?  WE GOT BEAT BY BRADY FREAKIN’ QUINN?!?!

The Baltimore Ravens stomped the Browns to fine paste on Sunday so we remain tied with them at 11-4.  However, the Ravens have two division losses while we only have one giving us the edge in tiebreakers.  If they should win their final game while we lose, they’d take the #2 seed by virtue of a better AFC record.  The Ratbirds are playing the Bengals this weekend.  Cincy is coming off their best game of the year, knocking the San Diego Chargers out of the playoff picture thanks to a four TD pass performance from Carson Palmer.  Funny how well he plays when TweedleDumb and TweedleDumber are both injured.

The 10-5 Kansas City Chiefs are the only other team with a chance to catch the Ravens and Steelers, record-wise.  However, they have a 6-5 conference record while both Pittsburgh and Baltimore are 8-3.  So no matter what happens, they can’t win the tiebreaker over either team.  They’re basically only playing to lock in a #3 seed over Indianapolis, who need a win to hold off the Jaguars for the AFC South title.

*Whew*  This sure beats last year when even my advanced calculus training didn’t help me understand the infinite possibilities required for the Steelers to back in to a Wild Card.