If you are the superstitious type you may hate what follows.

The Steelers are positioned to make a deep run into the playoffs, perhaps all the way to Tampa.

Why did I have to bring it up? 1. Because its true. 2. Because its becoming obvious. Until this week Pittsburgh has done a pretty good job of lying in the weeds as the sports punditry and the average fan discussed the merits of various pretenders; the Cowboys, Titans, Packers, Giants, Pats, Bills, etc. The Steekers? We were alright, but the Browns were the pick of the smart set to cut our throats, and if we escaped them there was also our schedule from Hell. additional arguments involved an O-line that was too weak, Ben would get hit too much (which has actually happened btw). And a lot of things have not gone our way on the injury front; Ben has been banged up all year, FWP has missed more games than he has played in, we're down two punters now and a long snapper,  we've lost a starting O-lineman and our number two running back for the year, Clark, Hampton, Keisel, Bmac, Heath, Marvel, Davis all starters have missed games, and Holmes has been suspended for being stupid. The play of the offense has mostly sucked. The special teams haven't done anything special for the most part....And we are 6-2, second seeded in the conference at the half way mark. And what do we have going for us?" Consider the following:

1. Steeler Nation. Check out this article by Michael Wilbon concerning the impact of our fans on the Monday night's game.

http:www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/articli/2008/11/05/AR2008110504343.html 

Redskin fans pride themselves in being among the most loyal and rabid in the league. Steeler Nation turned FedEx into a neutral site for one of the most important home games for the Skins in several years. While Heinz has not been the snakepit that Three Rivers was in its heyday, nobody really wants to play there. And now we are increasingly neutralizing the home field advantage of our opponents. This is not a small consideration and may explain why the Steelers have done so well on the road in recent years.

2. The Right Kind of Depth. Credit Coach Tomlin, his staff and the FO for assembling the kind of depth that has allowed this outfit to keep on functioning even under circumstances that would be considered catastrophic. If someone had told you before the season that we would go through a patch where Hampton and Keisel would both be lost for multiple games or that the running attack would boil down to Mewelde Moore, my guess is that most would have written this team off. We had the Giants on the ropes, not with FWP and Santonio Holmes, but with Moore, Nate Washington and Limas Sweed. And trust me, that did not go unnoticed around the league. Hats off also to Stapleton, Starks, Tyrone Carter, Anthony Smith, Gay, Townsend, Eason, Roye, Travis K., Hoke, Russell and Dookie (at least he doesn't fumble) for stepping up and keeping us competitive. But, hey, it gets even better. This has been a tough year for quarterbacks. Seasons have been ruined because the number one guy has gone down, or is seriously underperforming.  Think Brady and Romo, Carson Palmer and Derek Anderson, the Ravens, Peyton Manning. Pittsburgh has serious depth at QB. Around the site today folks are debatting whether Ben should take a week off (AGAINST THE COLTS!!!). Ben is banged up, and by his own admission having a subpar year so far...6-2. We can have this discussion because his backup is a playoff caliber quarterback who played pretty well this past week. And I know folks who were secretly hoping that Leftwich would get nicked just enough that Dennis Dixon would get a chance to show what he's got. And don't forget Charlie Batch on IR. We have options at QB that other teams can only dream about.

3. Defense. The talk this year is about the defenses of the Titans and the Ravens. But Pittsburgh on two consecutive weeks on national television have demonstrated why they are ranked # 1. Farrior, Troy, Harrison, Woodley and probably Aaron Smith are haviing Pro Bowl years (please remember to vote). The play of the secondary has been terrific. The front seven hasn't peaked yet. They just shut down the two best rushing attacks out there. The biggest remaining test are coming up these two weeks. The amount of offense that the Steelers generated this past Monday is pretty much all they'll need to win most games. If Pittsburgh can minimize mistakes by the offense and special teams in the form of cheap scores or favorable field position; further, if the offense can apply pressure by getting a two score lead and bleed the clock, than this team can beat anybody.

4. Schedule.More and more the schedule is loioking like a paper tiger. Frankly, there is only one team that scares me on the remaining schedule. (Let me say that just because a team doesn't scare me doesn't mean that they can't beat us. I am saying that they have as least as much to fear about us as the opposite). That team is Baltimore. And my primary concern is that there could be a lot of injuries in a Ravens game, particularly in light of talk of bounties and such. There are only two thiings standing in the way of a deep run this year in my opinion. One is continued bad luck on the injury front, and an inability of the offense to perform to its potential.

What do you think?