One of the week's best games

ESPN's John Clayton tags the Steelers-Bengals game as one of the week's best.

Ever since the week 3 game at Miami on Sunday night, the Steelers have been playing in one of each week's most important or interesting games. This is the advantage of a demanding schedule: teams don't let up when they are so obviously in the spotlight. Freaky upsets are more common in the shitty games than they are in the marquee matchups. The fact that the Steelers and Bengals would be playing in one of the better games was a factor in my decision to best-bet them this weekend. I'd be more worried if the Steelers were flying to Oakland to play a game that would be overshadowed by others also taking place at that hour.

NFL pundits pay too much attention to strength of schedule going forward. If team A only plays in two tough, obviously-marquee games, and team B has five gems on the schedule, I'm not so sure team A has that great an advantage. Team A may be more likely to win more of the remaining games, but team B may be ready to whoop it up on team A when they meet in the playoffs.