Steelers at Broncos Scheduled For 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8

by Neal Coolong on Jan 2, 2012 6:17 AM EST in Playoffs 2011

The Wild Card round schedule has been released, and the Steelers will play their first opening-round playoff game at 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday, January 8. The game will be aired on CBS.

It's the first time the Steelers have played a Wild Card game on Sunday of the playoff-opening weekend since 2006 (2005 season playoffs), when, incidentally, they played at the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 8.

Denver will host the game by virtue of their AFC West championship. The Steelers are the 5 seed. The last time these teams met in the playoffs was in Denver for the 2005 AFC Championship game. The Steelers won 34-20 en route to the Super Bowl XL championship.

The Bengals, the AFC's 6-seed, will travel to Houston (3-seed) to take on the AFC South champion Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Jan. 7. It will be broadcast on NBC.

The lowest seeded winner will travel to New England next weekend for the divisional round. The higher seed will travel to Baltimore.

Over in the NFC, 6-seed Detroit will travel to New Orleans to take on the 3-seeded Saints at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, Jan. 7. The No. 4-seeded Giants will host Atlanta at 1 p.m. ET, Sunday, Jan. 8.

The lowest remaining seed will travel to Green Bay the following weekend, and the other remaining team will travel to San Francisco.

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Could this be fate?

Last wildcard game played on Sunday was the year they went on the road and won three games to get into the superbowl. I have faith…..in the defense at least

by blitzzburgh on Jan 2, 2012 6:30 AM EST reply actions

How's this for fate?

The last time the Broncos were in the playoffs was 2005. The Broncos beat the Patriots at home and lost to the Steelers a week later. Now it’s 2011 and the Broncos have the opportunity to face the same teams in reverse order, Steelers first, then the Patriots. Talk about deja vu…

Respect is not given it is earned dog gonit...and they don't respect us...nobody respects us... you know what you got to do in that situation? TAKE IT!!!!!
Follow @MHR_Troy

by Troy Hufford on Jan 2, 2012 9:45 AM EST up reply actions

i have faith in the defense as well..im just hoping we keep tebow to 2completions then get to travel to new england…i think ben needs another week to get his leg rested.. my prediction would be if the steelers win they would play brady then flacco.

"HUCK IT...CHUCK IT...FOOTBALL" zach n miri make a porno

by Tank7Polamalu on Jan 2, 2012 7:27 AM EST reply actions

I’m thinking it will be Flacco then Brady because I dont see the Texans beating the Bengals

by GDEUCE on Jan 2, 2012 8:34 AM EST up reply actions

they already have…but im sure andy dalton will get butterflies and throw two picks

"HUCK IT...CHUCK IT...FOOTBALL" zach n miri make a porno

by Tank7Polamalu on Jan 2, 2012 8:37 AM EST up reply actions

FUTURE

Doubt they will get far in playoffs with injuries, poor offense etc.

Next year I doubt Ward, Smith, Kemeoto, McFadden, Farrior?? will be back

Need to draft or Free Agent, LG!!! ?? RG, RB, ILB badly, maybe backup QB.

by stefan on Jan 2, 2012 7:50 AM EST reply actions

we're considered by most to be one of 4 possible teams to win the entire thing

and most experts pick us well above the Pats. I don’t get the negativity. Bad offense yesterday, but we do have Arians as our OC and the weather sucked. Sure we didn’t get a bye week, but we do get the Broncos and that’s the closest thing to it.

I see us beating the broncos easily, beating the Pats and then another AFCC against the Ravens in a toss up.

As for the guard play – from what I saw it wasn’t an issue at RG yesterday as much as the rookie Gilbert getting schooled. I’ll assume he will improve next year since he’s hitting the rookie wall most likely.

by lkwdsteel on Jan 2, 2012 11:58 AM EST up reply actions

They better play Sunday the following week too

The NFL tends to do stupid things like give a wildcard team an unfair disadvantage by having one less day of rest/preparation by having them play on Saturday following a Sunday game. Would be especially worse in this case playing a late Sunday West Coast game.

And yes I have no doubt they beat the Broncos despite their struggling offense.

Follow me on twitter.

by Dr. Spaceman on Jan 2, 2012 7:55 AM EST reply actions

I just read that New England will host Saturday night game.

Unbelievable. So if the Steelers beat Denver, they travel home from West Coast and get one less day of rest before having to travel to New England for Saturday night game. BS. (I’m assuming Houston takes care of Cincy.)

Follow me on twitter.

by Dr. Spaceman on Jan 2, 2012 8:17 AM EST up reply actions

Number one defense!

Old and slow coming into the season. NUMBER ONE, coming out of the season.
Mendehal injured, but seriously, he had a decent season, but he was not a dominant factor and he can be replaced.
Finally, I don’t know why Ben played against the Brownies. It defies all reason.

by Yinzer Z on Jan 2, 2012 8:10 AM EST reply actions

Frankly, my preferred scenario for these playoffs is...

…we go to Foxboro and beat the Pats (we use regular season game defense as template, then add twists); Pats defense not threatening to BB’s health, presuming he survives the Praying Ponies.

…Texan’s shut down Rice and eliminate Ratbirds (everyone at BTSC to say 3 Fail Flaccos for not Hating enough against Ratbirds in regular season).

At this point, I’d consider the Steelers’ season a resounding success, and anything further gained pure gravy.

United we Stand, melded like Steel
To Roger Goodell, We'll never Yield.

by PaVaSteeler on Jan 2, 2012 11:09 AM EST reply actions

Cortez needs to be healthy

He was valuable against NEs TEs.

anyone trying to contact me via my yahoo account should be aware it has been hacked

by Cold_Old_Steelers_Fan on Jan 2, 2012 10:35 PM EST up reply actions

Here we go...

I’m local here and just scored 100 level tix – will be looking forward to us ending the Tebow myth for good. Frustrated that we have the same types of injury issues to key players we had last year, we’ll see how we do.

Hope lots of you guys can make it out – I see they restricted the sales to the western states, best of luck to you in the resale market, we always pack the house from what I’ve seen.

by SteelCurtain4Life on Jan 2, 2012 12:26 PM EST reply actions