Two teams will be playing this week in what's no doubt the most important game of the season.
Neither one is located in New England or Indianapolis.
No, despite the rantings of the media hypesters, the game of the year happens this Monday Night in Pittsburgh, when the fate of an entire team will be determined.
That team will be the Stillers. And if you don't get the enormity of this scenario (which I'm not sure many fans do), remember: everything that's happened since Bill Cowher left has been leading up to this moment.
Part of the reason I wanted Bill Cowher to leave (besides just plain wanting him to leave) was what I called "the Ravens situation." Part of the reason I was all for Mike Tomlin being hired (besides wanting Mike Tomlin to be hired) was to solve the Ravens situation.
It's like this: every game the Stillers lost last year could be explained away as an anomaly, if not a downright fluke. All except two, that is.
The two losses against the Ravens weren't flukes; they were good old-fashioned butt whoopings. In fact, they were more than lopsided losses: they were confirmations that something was wrong -- really wrong -- with the team.
Keeping Cowher on board would practically guarantee that the Stillers wouldn't correct the Ravens situation. That's because wholesale changes needed to be made to the offensive and defensive systems themselves.
Ask yourself why the Stillers lost so badly: did the Ravens suddenly become a physically superior team? And how did they do so in the space of about a year, when both games each team played the previous season were close contests?
I don't believe the two blowout wins indicated the Ravens turned into superior athletes; more likely, they simply figured out the Stillers' systems.
Not that anyone ever confused a Bill Cowher offense with an English garden maze, but Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan apparently took solving the Stiller O to a whole new level. And let's face it -- by now Steve McNair knows the Stiller defense better than most of the Stiller players. (Maybe that's why he can look like Joe Montana against Pittsburgh one week, then Joe Blow against Detroit or Kansas City the next.)
Think about it: the Ravens' signature play -- the one their fans can't keep, uh, crowing about -- is Bart Scott running smack into Roethlisberger, then turfing him. But did Scott make some great play to swoop in and nail him? No, in fact it he came in untouched, free to collect the cake-easy kill of the season.
That's right -- the Ravens' play of the season was nothing more than a Dong Sack.
The Ravens' defense didn't overpower the Stillers; they simply found ways to defeat the Stillers' scheme. That's something that CAN be solved without wholesale personnel changes.
Saying bye-bye to Billy automatically ensures the Ravens won't face the same-old same-old....a classic case of addition by subtraction.
Now, the schemes the Ravens will be facing this time won't be radically different -- Tomlin's kept Lebeau on the staff of course -- but they might have changed just enough to make a difference.
Who knows -- maybe this time McNair won't know where the blitz is coming from every time he steps up to the line. Maybe Ryan won't be able to brag after the game about how easy it was to figure out the Stillers' protection schemes.
Tomlin said he'd be looking for what the Ravens were trying to accomplish overall when he reviewed tapes from last year. The big picture, rather than individual plays. That leads me to believe he's approaching the situation correctly: from a macro-managerial standpoint.
What exactly are the things the Ravens want to accomplish? On defense, confuse and intimidate; on offense, pound the ball and let McNair convert one goddamned third-and-long after another.
In other words, be the Pittsburgh Stillers.
So here it is, the chance to erase all the bad memories of last year, at home no less. Win, and take back the division.
Win convincingly, and you might just be a contender after all.
Not only that, but you stop these shitheads from doing their Stiller imitation. That's all that's at stake here -- the team's very identity.
Think I'm kidding? Go back to the Scott sack. He's unblocked because both Parker and Starks are sucked into providing double teams on single defenders. No physical domination here -- Ryan simply out-LeBeaued the Stillers. (How's that for identity theft?)
Lose, of course, and all the previous wins this year mean little. The Stillers go back to square one, and Cowher might as well still be coaching here. (And you thought that Sunday afternoon game meant a lot?)
By the way, if you're taking the Ravens lightly because of some of the games they've lost this season, don't. Throw it all out with the trash, because it's all about how the Ravens match up with the Stillers. Which is to say, pretty favorably.
I won't bother getting into individual matchups; CK has done a fine job of that, and if you haven't done so already, be sure to read his preview. I will give one key to the game: stop starting out looking like a bunch of pee-wee leaguers on a field trip to their first pro game.
It's up to the Stillers to get things going early, not the Ravens. And it doesn't have to be the long bomb. One good 5-yard run (which about would equal the Stillers combined rush total from both games last year) is all it would take to announce things have changed.
Again, everything from the time Bill Cowher said goodbye, to the day Mike Tomlin said hello has been leading up to this game. Forget New England or Indy -- the Stillers have to show they can beat Baltimore before they think about challenging the upper crust.
It's time: time to make the Baltimore Ravens look as mediocre as they do against every other team they play. Time to make your move, Stillers.
Are they ready for some football? Boy, will we find out Monday night.