ben roethlisberger

Of all the games in the NFL Divisional Playoff round, none arrives with the intrigue of this game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars. In Week 5 of the regular season, the Jags hammered the Steelers 30-9 right in Pittsburgh's Heinz Field. In 2007, Jacksonville won in Pittsburgh during the regular season and again in the divisional playoffs, and history does have a way of repeating itself.

On paper, Sunday's match-up between the 10-3 New England Patriots and 11-2 Pittsburgh Steelers for top seed and the edge for home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs looks like the game of the week on the NFL slate. In reality, unless the Steelers find a way to compete with the Patriots, recent history would suggest that it doesn't figure to be much of a game.

You can call the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals rivals, and historically, you'd be correct. Recent history, though, paints a much different picture. Pittsburgh has won five straight from the Bengals. The Steelers have taken eight of nine and 23 of 31 from Cincy since Marvin Lewis was installed as head coach of the Bengals in 2003. If Cincinnati wants this series to remain a rivalry, then the Bengals need to start winning.

When the Kansas City Chiefs throttled the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in their season opener, it looked as if Andy Reid's team was finally ready to take the next step, make some noise and go deep into the playoffs. But the Chiefs are now on a 1-5 slide since their 5-0 start and a Kansas City postseason appearance can no longer be considered a certainty.

Like a giant boulder steamrolling down the side of a hill, the New Orleans Saints just keep picking up steam, and steamrolling everyone and everything in their path. Up next, a road test against NFC-West leading L.A. Rams. This will be another measure of the Saints' ability to overcome a challenge, but no one's stopped them yet, so betting against them would be a unwise choice to make.

Sharing the lead in the AFC South, the Tennessee Titans are riding a five-game winning streak, their longest stretch of success since 2009 but can they take their show on the road to Heinz Field and upend the Pittsburgh Steelers? While the AFC North-leading Steelers are winning, they are hardly impressing anybody with their inconsistent performances and the inability of their offense to put points on the board.

During the NFL's 14-game season era from 1961-77, just one team, the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, managed to go 0-14. Since the league went to a 16-game campaign in 1978, just one team, the 2008 Detroit Lions, managed to go 0-16. But this season, both the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, are flirting with 0-16. Could 2017 be remembered as the double nothing season?

Playoff spots can be nailed down on several fronts this week as the NFL nears its regular-season finish line. And the Green Bay-Detroit battle for the NFC North gets ever more heated heading towards their big showdown next week at Ford Field.

In what is absolutely no surprise, the 2015 NFL season will begin on Thursday, Sept. 10 at New England's Gillette Stadium when the Super Bowl champion Patriots host the Pittsburgh […]