Pittsburgh Steelers Fanatics

First and foremost let me take this opportunity to wish all of my fellow Pittsburgh Steelers fans a healthy and Happy New Year.
 
One way that would make all of our New Years a little happier is if our beloved Steelers bring home the Lombardi Trophy several weeks from now. Well we will get another chance to get back to the Super Bowl as early as next week or hopefully 2 weeks from now when the playoffs begin.

After a 3 and 1 month of December the opportunity to defend and repeat as American Football Conference Champions is now at hand. If the defense plays as well as they did in December by allowing 7 points or fewer in each of the 3 wins (against the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and St. Louis Rams), then that Lombardi Trophy is coming back to the Steel City. However, if the offense struggled like they did in the loss to the San Francisco 49ers then the Lombardi Trophy will elude us again.

I understand that in the 49ers game Ben Roethlisberger was horrible primarily due to the ankle injury that he suffered the week before and this leads into my January 2012 preview which will only entail the game against the Cleveland Browns since the playoff seeding and matchups on the AFC side of the ledger has yet to be determined.

I would like to see Roethlisberger and any other Steeler dealing with a significant injury to not bother playing in the Browns game.

First off the weather forecast in Cleveland calls for rain changing to snow which means the playing conditions will be horrible which could further aggravate an already existing injury.

Secondly there is no guarantee that the Cincinnati Bengals defeat the Baltimore Ravens, so why send our guys out there to play what could be the equivalent of a meaningless game. Let players 40 through 53 on our roster get out and show what they are made of and have some extended playing time. Who knows a star player may be discovered as a result of the extended playing time.

Finally is being the 5 seed really that bad? Yes it is nice to get at least one home playoff game, but remember we did win Super Bowl 40 as a 6 seed and a good deal of those players from that team are still on this current 2011 team so it couldbe done again.

Whether we wind up with the 2 seed or the 5 seed let's just get out the Browns game healthy and get ready to make another strong run at claiming what is rightfully ours: The Lombardi Trophy.

Go Steelers!!!!