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When Saturday night rolls around, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals will finally be able to put an end to their 2015-2016 grudge. No more talk about "next time" and the war of words which has gone back and forth throughout the season. This time the game is for a lot more than bragging rights. It is the playoffs, where nothing matters but who is moving on.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and their high-flying offense would love to help the Bengals defense pack their bags early, and they have just the weapons to do so. With Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton, Martavis Bryant and Heath Miller, their arsenal of weapons is vast and deep; however, they could be without DeAngelo Williams who is nursing an injured ankle, and will be a sign of weakness as the team prepares for Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jordan Todman to carry the load.
The Bengals have a few weapons of their own, and despite missing Andy Dalton for this playoff game, AJ McCarron and A.J. Green seem poised to exorcise the organization's playoff demons on the national stage on their home turf.
After the Week 14 matchup garnered over $130,000 dollars in fines, this contest could be one great playoff game if it lives up to the billing. Nonetheless, we take a look at who are the experts taking to win this game.
At ESPN, their panel of experts are leaning towards the Steelers, as 10 of their 13 experts think the favored Steelers are going to move on to play the Denver Broncos in the Divisional Round of the AFC Playoffs. A similar story can be told here at SB Nation. Of their seven expert panel, four of them like the Steelers in this AFC North rivalry.
At FOXSports, their own seven expert panel is identical to that of SB Nation's, with four picking the Steelers and three like the Bengals to hold serve at home. Finally, at CBSSports, five of their eight experts all see Pittsburgh as the team who will be moving on, continuing the Bengals', and Marvin Lewis', dreadful playoff drought another season
At NFL Pick Watch, a website dedicated to taking all expert picks across the web and putting them into one neat location, they have 69-percent of experts leaning towards the Steelers in this AFC North rubber match.
The outcome of this game is very much uncertain, and the experts seem split on who they like to be victorious, but if they were leaning one way, it would be towards the Pittsburgh Steelers as they try to claim their 7th Lombardi trophy in franchise history.