Fantasy Football

We’re going to attempt to follow the same format we used yesterday. If their is some innocuous difference in how we preview this game, then please, keep it to yourself or try to reconcile with the fact that we are more than aware of it, but we just didn’t care.

Also, The only reason this game is rated higher on our competitiveness scale is we give much more credence to the win over the Colts than Arizona’s win over Atlanta. Indy was a better team than the Falcons throughout the season, they played a better game than Atlanta in the wild card match-up and just in tone and tenor it felt a little less fluky.

San Diego’s Outlook: Much to my surprise, people are picking the Chargers to win this game outright. Apparently if you can run with Darren Sproles against Indy, you can run against a record setting defense. Now, we’ve been hinting at Sproles being the better option in the backfield than Tomlinson since roughly week eight or nine. And some might say he proved it on Saturday night. While he did look impressive and he could quite possibly be an elevated degree of the diminutive running back trend we’ve seen in the NFL this season, it doesn’t mean he’s going to run against the Steelers.

Why so pessimistic? One reason, really: Nobody runs against the Steelers. It doesn’t make much sense to me to suspect that a warm weather west coast team is going to travel east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January and pull out a win. It just doesn’t. Particularly when the east coast team won four more games during the regular season. the Indy win was great and all, but Indy is/was a finesse team. Pitt is a bruising, hard nose, “we’d only wear leather helmets if we could” old school team. Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor and Jerome Harrison? That’s an entirely different ball of yarn than Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis and Gary Brackett.

That said, no team offense and no quarterback has been moving the ball downfield better than the Chargers (well, except maybe the Patriots. Ahem). Phillip Rivers has been the best quarterback in the league for the last month and assuming they play with Vincent Jackson, they’ll be able to spread the field and maybe put a dent in that Pittsburgh defense. It is somewhat trite to say, but if their defense forces some turnovers (because their defense isn’t good enough to continually force the Steelers to punt), they can come out of Steel town with a W.

I'm usually not the smartest person in the room but I do know one thing, that field will not be well-manicured.

Pittsburgh’s Outlook: With a team that’s as focused and virulent as the Steelers, there is never a question as to whether they’re going to forget their objective because of a week off. They won’t. I’ll never understand why the Steelers organization is so much better ran than everyone else in the NFL, but I imagine it has something to do with coaching. Mike Tomlin was a strong hire to continue the Chuck Nohl, Bill Cowher mindset.

In other words, the Steelers typically do not lose games like this. If they’re involved in a game where there is a clear cut favorite and an upset takes place, they’re just about always the ones doing the upsetting. I wouldn’t expect anything different this week especially with the circumstances being what they are.

On the other side of the coin, however, the offense this season has been the epitome of inconsistence. If you look at their point totals for the season, you have to imagine that if they go into this game and can’t regularly move the ball downfield, things have the potential to become much more challenging than they should be.

Roethlisberger, for as great of a winning percentage as he has and for as great as he can look any given week, is just not the quarterback everyone wants him to be. Pittsburgh is, was and always will be a run first offense. He is best used in small, efficient doses (limited passing attempts for big chunks of yardage and a couple touchdowns). That isn’t to say he isn’t serviceable or even very good. But he isn’t Joe Montana or John Elway or even Phillip Rivers.

ESPN Manufactured Storylines: How will Big Ben recover from his concussion? Can Darren Sproles repeat his performance? Can the vaunted Pitt defense “find” Sproles behind the offensive line? Will Vincent Jackson’s DUI be a distraction for the underdog? I think the only way to settle these and more is to have a hyper, inarticulate discussion riddled with insider jokes between Chris Berman and a slew of former players.

Fantasy Implications: Just like yesterday and for every other game this weekend, there really isn’t any. But if you want recommendations for NFL.com’s fantasy playoff challenge extravaganza, I like Antonio Gates to blow up as he’ll be used to bail out Rivers several times I’m sure. A healthy Willie Parker isn’t going to do you wrong, either. Also, if someone puts a keg and a couple Patron bottles in the end zone, Vincent Jackson might be setting all kinds of records. Someone has to take the initiative, though. Those bottles aren’t going to buy themselves, people.

The Pick: Ugh, I hate to do this for the second game in a row, but six doesn’t seem like a big enough spread. We have to take the Steelers to win outright and to cover, because if you look at who they have lost to during the season, two of the teams were 12-4 (Giants, Colts), one was 13-3 (Titans) and the other was the Eagles (who are arguably the hottest team in the NFL at the moment). As much as I may want to (and you have no idea how much I want to), I just can’t see San Diego following up last week’s performance on the road. Outside of the superior passing game, the only thing San Diego has going for it is Darren Sproles’ low center of gravity. He’ll be able to eat up the slop that is Heinz field better than most.

Back with more tomorrow.