IX - Here's your NFL Week 12 TV Distribution Map. The Steelers and Chiefs play a nationally televised game on Sunday Night Football, of course, but check out who you got on in your local market earlier Sunday afternoon.
X - LaMarr Woodley will reportedly miss his third consecutive game this Sunday night with the hamstring injury sustained during the Steelers Week 9 win over New England. Woodley has still not practiced since October 30th, limited instead to jogging, stretching and other basic exercises for the past month. Not good, though hopefully it won't matter much for Woodley to be available against a hapless Chiefs offense.
XIII - Pete Wilmoth of SB Nation Pittsburgh projects that Baltimore's win over San Francisco on Thanksgiving night likely wrapped up the division for the Ravens. Wilmoth's math is not fuzzy, of course. The Steelers would need to win their remaining six games and have Baltimore lose one of its final five. Were the Steelers to lose once more, the Ravens would have to fall twice, and so on. But I still think it's a bit premature to say that the Ravens are shoe-ins just yet. They've looked too inconsistent against ho-hum teams this year to believe they won't be in another dogfight or two down the stretch. We'll see if they get tripped up somewhere, but they'll walk themselves into a trap or two that they must navigate out of adeptly. Lots still in play in the AFC North.
IX - Let's sure hope the Steelers have come a long way since their 2009 meltdown against inferior opponents, a five-game stretch of losses that included a road defeat at Kansas City in a game the Steelers were in control of.
XL - Kyle Orton, signed this week by the Chiefs in the wake of Matt Cassel being placed on injured reserve, will not be ready to start Sunday night against the Steelers. That means NFL start No. 2 for Tyler Palko, a Pittsburgh product.
XLIII - Speaking of Palko, the former Pitt Panthers quarterback is hoping for a memorable game against the Steelers, who you may have forgot signed Palko briefly in 2009 after injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and Charlie Batch had gutted the QB depth chart.