After that game, McCarron reminded Roethlisberger of the other time they’d met – when McCarron was a 13-year-old growing up on the Alabama Gulf Coast and Roethlisberger was a star collegiate quarterback. Meanwhile, Packers-Redskins and Steelers-Bengals have totals from 45-46.5.
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If McCarron leads the Bengals to victory on Saturday, he will become the first quarterback to win a playoff game with such little experience since 1979, when Gifford Nielsen led the Houston Oilers to a win in San Diego. Add in the playoff atmosphere and you could have the game of the weekend in Cincinnati. Visitors went 118-138 this season, and the wild cards were a collective 19-13 away from home. Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain Primanti Brothers rewarded the Bills for the assist by sending an order of sandwiches – complete with French fries and cole slaw on top – to Buffalo as a “thank you”.
It’s happened each of the last two times Pittsburgh played in the wild-card round. As an analyst for CBS Sports on THE NFL TODAY, Cowher now gets to watch all teams around the NFL, but still knows what the Steelers are all about. The following April he was drafted 11th overall by the Steelers. While William Gay, Ross Cockrell and Brandon Boykin are not exactly giants in the secondary, each of them presents a better option to cover Green than what Blake brings to the table. “The biggest question for them is at the quarterback position”. All three key contributors gave it their all against the Ravens and they’re expected to do the same on Saturday. He originally suffered the injury against the Broncos in Week 16. “I’ve been trying to take care of the football and being thrown in that game, I didn’t”. While the defense is playing well, the loss of QB Andy Dalton is a major concern for Cincinnati as they begin their playoff run.
“I’m doing more strengthening and making sure my conditioning’s there, running and cardio and things like that”, Dalton said Friday. Dalton’s absence really affects the ability of the offense to consistently produce points and sustain drives.
It’s not been announced yet whether Dalton will be cleared to play Saturday, or if he is cleared, whether he will start. McCarron to lead to offense. The Bengals don’t have an experienced backup should McCarron get hurt.
The matchups are even more intriguing considering they are rematches from the regular season. That was the case last Sunday against Baltimore with everyone other than those two being healthy scratches, and Cincinnati appears to have made it out of that game with only the Emmanuel Lamur injury.
Behind players like Carlos Dunlap and Geno Atkins, their defense ranks second in the league in points allowed (the most critical defensive statistic).
The only one under more pressure than McCarron is Lewis, who is 0-6 in the postseason. They dropped two of their last four games, missing out on a chance for a first-round bye that would have given Dalton another week to heal.
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Seahawks at Vikings. Arguably the best D/ST matchup of the weekend against a one-dimensional Vikings offense.
