Pitt Wins; Steelers Need To Win

Therran Coleman's interception in OT

seals the win for Pitt

As we settled into our Heinz Field seats yesterday before 2-3 Pitt took on 4-1 Syracuse, I said to my pal Dan Bonk, "Pitt really, really needs to win this game today."   Over four and one-half hours later, Pitt pulled off a 44-37 overtime win in a game that was sandwiched around a ninety minute weather delay.  That was a first for me at a football game.  Still, it was a fun and highly entertaining game.

Think about it, had the Panthers lost, they would have fallen to 2-4 (1-2 in conference) going into the Notre Dame game at South Bend next week, a game in which ND will be, rightfully, heavily favored.  Then they would have been 2-5, and the season would have been pretty much over insofar as making a bowl game.  Now at 3-3, the path towards six wins and bowl eligibility (if THAT is how you want to define "success" out there in Oakland) becomes a bit more obtainable.  

Winning against Syracuse yesterday didn't necessarily save Pitt's season, but a loss would surely have killed it.

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Similarly, the highly disappointing 1-2-1 Steelers take on an equally disappointing 1-3 Atlanta Falcons squad on the Heinz Field greensward this afternoon in a game that both teams really, really have to win.  Both teams have explosive offenses (that dud against the Ravens last week notwithstanding) and rather inept, so far, defenses.  We could be looking at a 45-42 type of game this afternoon.   Yes, there will still be eleven games remaining, but the team that loses today could very well be kissing their playoff hopes goodbye as a result.

Speaking of that Baltimore game last week, I was unable to watch the game due to the fact that a fallen tree on Rochester Road knocked out the power in our neighborhood.  It was a classic good news/bad news situation.  The Bad News was that I was unable to watch the Steelers-Ravens game, and the Good News was that I was unable to watch the Steelers-Ravens game.

Further bad news was that I was forced to listen to the game on the radio being described by Moe, Larry and Curly, otherwise known as Billy, Tunch, and "Wolf".  Wow, are they God-awful.  I am sure that any random sixteen year  old kid doing play-by-play of his high school team's football game on an Internet streaming broadcast would do at least as good a job as that crew.

Oh well, in about two hours I'll be settling in for this Steelers-Falcons tilt.  In about six hours, we'll know just how meaningful the rest of the Steelers season will be.