Stiller Sunday: AFC Championship

The game before the big game, the place where you acquire some marbles, but not all of the marbles: it's the AFC Championship Game. Today sees the AFC North Division rivals bang heads for a crack at the Super Bowl. The Steelers are 2-0 against the Ravens this year and as we've heard from the media all week it is a Herculean feat of near impossibility to beat a team three times in one season. Except, you know, when it's not.

This week was a busy one for bush league shenanigans. Our dear mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, changed his name to Luke Steelerstahl aka Luke Steelersteel. Baltimore's mayor Shelia Dixon countered by being indicted on 12 counts of perjury, theft, and misconduct of office. I must say I prefer our pre-game stunts to theirs. This is what happens when you don't re-elect Tommy Carcetti, Baltimore.

As for the game we all know this is a battle between two teams who are exactly the same, except for running games, passing games, big name big game QB's, unibrows, and number of murder acquittals. What's going to be different this game? How about a Pittsbugh space army. We control the skies in conjunction with the geese. Also, that bye week did us good. Steelers are healthy except for Polamalu, who has a calf but only missed one practice, and Jeff Hartwig, who went into catatonic shock over how well the offensive line played against San Diego. For the Ravens corner Samari Rolle is almost definitely out and the ugliest man in football, LB Terrell "T-Sizzle" Suggs, might miss the game as well, though he says he'll suit up.

So what we have is a banged up team going against a healthy team, a Super Bowl winning QB going up against a rookie, that rookie going up against the #1 D in the league, and a snowy game played on a field where the Steelers have won 7 of the last 8 matchups against Sugar Ray and crew. Negatives? Everyone at ESPN picked us which can't be good, Cowher era bad feelings left over from a few of those AFC title Kordell stink bombs, and the seemingly inevitable return to form of the offensive line. That said, we are the better team and we should win this going away. One thing we know is that we'll all be watching, either because we're massively supportive or deeply pathetic.

Kickoff at 6:30. Line is Steelers -6. Over/Under 34.5.