1:00PM EST, CBS
The Steelers are featured in the NFL's annual trip across the pond. Ideally, Roger Goodell wants to showcase the best the NFL has to offer (without losing too much revenue in the home team's market). The plan was simple: The Steelers, a storied franchise since the AFL-NFL merger, face the Minnesota Vikings, another historical, though less successful and currently weakened, franchise. That story has been altered a bit with both teams coming in winless.
This is will not be a showcase to an international audience of the best the NFL has to offer. That will be going down when the Patriots play the Falcons Sunday night, probably. Instead, the good people of London will be treated to an epic clash of a stoppable force and a movable object, with one team having to pull away with a win by default. Each team is beginning to play closer attention to Saturday football as they measure up their probably draft position, but the season isn't over yet for either team. In fact, the worst thing that could happen for the Steelers might be to win convincingly, by a score of 38-10 or so. If 10-6 is still a realistic goal, the Steelers have to put together a heck of a run for the rest of the season. Crazier things have happened, but if they fall to 0-4 it may just be a weight off of everyone's shoulders.
It's almost too bad the Pirates played themselves out of having to care about tomorrow (just kidding, it's awesome, Dusty Baker can get attacked by fire ants for all I care) because the Steeler game will be the most meaningful event in Pittsburgh, and that may only be by default. But hey, we're allegedly seeing Le'Veon Bell tomorrow and Heath Miller should figure into more of the offense. If anyone can make up for the deficiencies at tackle, it's Miller, and if we're lucky, we can see Bell take advantage of that.
Who knows what will come of this English excursion? It may not end up being a defining game for either club, but it certainly won't be meaningless for those either clinging to hope or updating draft borads.
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