By now, you’ve probably heard about the game:  The 5-2 Steelers visit a 6-win team on Monday Night Football in early November.   As usual, the Steelers are flying under the radar, and all of the focus is on their opponent.

Their opponent has won most of their games in grind-it-out fashion, by playing good defense and not throwing interceptions.   

Their opponent has only played one bad game all season, losing to a team that made a deep run in the previous year’s playoffs.

Their opponent is averaging a hair over 20 points per game on offense at midseason, which is a mild upset because their heretofore-maligned signalcaller is delivering Pro Bowl-caliber quarterbacking.

Their opponent has a first-year head coach who wasn’t expected to deliver such a solid product on the field this soon, but has been the surprise of the year.

Curiously enough, the Steelers are the Vegas-line favorites, even though the media is focused on the feel-good story of the NFL. 

Vegas sure knows its stuff.  The Steelers go out and thump the…. Washington Redskins 23-6 on Monday, November 3, 2008.  Jason Campbell, who hadn’t thrown an interception all season, throws two picks, and despite losing Ben Roethlisberger for the second half due to a shoulder injury sustained on a one-yard TD run, the Steelers shake off the early crowd-fueled electricity and absolutely dominate the final 55 minutes of the game and serve up a slice of humble pie to the overrated, doomed-for-a-giant-collapse Redskins.

The similarities between the 2008 Redskins and the 2009 Broncos are palpable.

While Kyle Orton and Jason Campbell protect the ball well (Orton has just one INT this season – a Hail Mary at the end of the first half against New England that was picked off by none other than Randy Moss), neither can throw the deep ball accurately.  This allows their stud wideouts (Brandon Marshall and Santana Moss) to be effectively contained with short safeties and man coverage deep. 

The extra man in the box allows the Steelers to stuff the running game; last year, Clinton Portis had reeled off five straight 120+ yard games before running into the modern-day Steel Curtain, ending up with just 51 yards rushing.  With no running game and no deep threat, the Skins were forced to throw 43 times for a mere 206 yards.  Campbell was sacked 7 times for 45 yards, resulting in just 161 net yards passing. 

Sounds a lot like what the Ravens did to the Broncos last week, doesn’t it?  Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter combined for 55 yards rushing, leaving Kyle Orton to throw the ball 37 times for 152 yards.

Yes, having a Nick Eason-Ziggy Hood rotation at DE could hurt a little, as will the (presumed) absence of Ryan Clark.  But with the way the Steelers can run and throw the ball, combined with their obvious advantage in the Denver offense v. Pittsburgh defense matchup, the Steelers should again prove Vegas right.

I, for one, feel pretty comfortable about facing the Broncos this week.  The Steelers have already played this game, and it went pretty well the last time.