By Bob Smizik | Friday 12:30 a.m.
Here it is the final days of November, Thanksgiving is behind us, and we have a crazy role reversal with our football teams.
The Steelers are on the road in Baltimore playing for their post-season life.
The Pitt Panthers are in Morgantown playing for a championship season.
Isn’t is supposed to be the other way around?
It’s usually the Steelers who are strutting toward a championship at this point in the season and the Panthers struggling for success. But the Steelers are 6-4 with a two-game losing streak and Pitt is 9-1 with a six-game winning streak.
I haven’t given up on the Steelers, who looked so good just a few week ago, but they are faced with what amounts to an almost must-win game at Baltimore. If they lose to the Ravens, they’re 6-5 and probably on the outside looking in at the playoff race and dragging a three-game losing streak.
The Ravens are nothing great. They’re 5-5, but look at those losses. They were beaten by New England by six, by Cincinnati by three, by Minnesota by two and, last week, by Indianapolis by two.
Their once-great defense isn’t what it used to be but still can be formidable. In the past four games, the Ravens have allowed only 41 points and three of those games came against teams that had a total of two losses at the time.
The Ravens are at home and desperate.
The Steelers are on the road and also should be desperate. But they weren’t that way last week when they lost to a bad Kansas City team.
There’s a tendency to overlook injuries and believe they can be overcome. But the Steelers again will be playing without strong safety Troy Polamalu and end Aaron Smith, two of their best defensive players. Injuries to key players can sometimes be overcome, but not always for the full 60 minutes. It’s hard for a team to lose players of that caliber and not feel it.
With the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns on the schedule after Baltimore, the Steelers have a chance to get on a roll and gather some momentum. But a win over Baltimore is essential and that will not be easy.
It looks like Pittsburgh might have to count on the Panthers to provide championship football. Pitt will be tested in its final two games -- West Virginia tonight and Cincinnati the following Saturday. But the Mountaineers do not figure to have what it takes to stop Pitt’s Big East title drive.
West Virginia is not as good as it was the past two seasons when it lost to Pitt. The Panthers are better than they were in beating those West Virginia teams -- in the memorable 13-9 game in 2007 and 19-15 last year.
Comparative scores are not always a good barometer, but Pitt crushed South Florida, 41-14 and West Virginia lost to South Florida, 30-19.
Sports Illustrated recently had Pitt winning the Big East and playing Florida in the Sugar Bowl. That would be something. I’m not sure Pitt can handle Cincinnati and the passing of Tony Pike, but the Panthers are decidedly better than the Mountaineers and will prove that tonight in Morgantown.
Pitt 30, West Virginia 17.
Posted
Nov 27 2009, 12:30 AM
by
Bob Smizik