NFL pittsburgh Steelers

If you're a Steelers fan, you know that the Steelers kick coverage has been putrid, but considering how bad the Steelers coverage teams over the years have been, it's easy to not realize just how rank this year's special teams are. Thankfully, the Football Outsiders are able to give it some perspective.

In the 15 years of stats the FO guys now have data foor, the Steelers are coming up on a very dubious record. The 1995 Bills have the record for the worst kick coverage unit of all time--they are so bad that the difference between them and the second worst team is as much as the difference between the second worst and the 53rd worst unit.

If you've ever seen the Pittsburgh Steelers play a road game, it's not uncommon to see thousands of fans in black and gold in the stands (much to the chagrin of the local fans/writers), while you can probably find a "black-and-gold-bar" in just about every major city in the United States.

Needless to say, if the Steelers are playing, there's going to be a lot of fans with Pittsburgh-ties in the area. Their Week 2 game in Chicago, a 17-14, loss was no different, and one fan, 46-year-old Zack Eddinger, claims he was poisoned (and blinded) in a Chicago bar after an altercation with a group of Bears fans.

When you've given up three kick return touchdowns in the past four games, some heads are going to roll. For Pittsburgh, linebacker Arnold Harrison has been deemed the scapegoat, as he was cut on Tuesday when the Steelers started to shake up the kick coverage unit.

When the Steelers gave up a kick return touchdown to Browns' returner Josh Cribbs, it was a minor setback in what was an easy win. Percy Harvin's kick return against the Steelers gave Pittsburgh a scare, but once again, the Steelers figured out how to survive anyway.

When the Bengals beat the Steelers on Sunday, they came about as close as is possible to wrapping up a division in the middle of November. Cincinnati now effectively has a two-game lead in the division (thanks to their head-to-head tiebreaker advantage) with seven games to go. But more than anything, the easy schedule for the AFC North make it clear that we'll likely see at least two AFC North teams in the playoffs.

As we mentioned last week, the remaining Bengals schedule puts Cincinnati in a very clear driver's seat in the AFC North. Cincinnati's next three games are against the Raiders (2-7), Browns (1-7) and Lions (1-7).

PITTSBURGH -- When you go to a Pittsburgh Steelers game, you absorb the vibe. You live it. You expect a day of face-stomping, mouth-smashing and butt-kicking, and you walk away with the satisfying feeling that you've just beaten someone up. It's all about identity.

So it was a little disturbing to see 65,000 people leave Heinz Field Sunday all limping, hunched over, bleeding and holding their arms to their sides. The Steelers are supposed to be the team providing the stomping, smashing and kicking, not the face, the mouth and the butt.

And the last team you would expect to be pummeling the defending Super Bowl champs? Not just beating them, but pounding them? The Cincinnati Bengals.

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Just when Pittsburgh thought Troy Polamalu was getting back to full health, the Steelers may have lost their superstar safety again. Polamalu limped to the locker room during Sunday's game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and immediate reports were that he had reinjured his left knee. He did not return to the game, which Cincinnati won 18-12.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said after the game that Polamalu would undergo an MRI.

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Chad Ochocinco is always looking for the spotlight, but say this for the Bengals wideout: he's more original than anyone else when he's trying to hog the spotlight. And some of his attention getters are pretty nice.

Over at his Twitter account on Friday, Ochocinco tweeted: "Hotel manager name is Jesse, first person to say my name Ocho Cinco to Jesse at the Marriot we about to act a donkey in the mall."

Pittsburgh doesn't win the AFC North every year -- it just feels that way. The Ravens actually took the division title in 2003 and 2006, and Cincinnati tied the Steelers for the crown in 2005.

That, of course, was the year that Pittsburgh and Cincinnati met in the first round of the playoffs. The Bengals' Carson Palmer went down after one pass attempt with a disastrous knee injury and the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.

It has taken Cincinnati since that game to get back into contention, but the Bengals finally appear to be back. They currently sit tied for first place with Pittsburgh at 6-2 overall, and have a win over the Steelers to their credit this year. A win Sunday in Heinz Field, coupled with a favorable schedule the rest of the way, could mean the AFC North title slips out of the 'Burgh again.

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For weeks, people have asked if the Cincinnati Bengals are for real. The team keeps responding by finding ways to win games, but the questions keep coming in. This week, they get a chance to sweep the defending Super Bowl champions. Green Bay was picked by many to be a playoff team this season, but they've limped their way to 4-4, got worked by a former teammate, and now face a virtual must-win against red-hot Dallas. Meanwhile, the Colts and Patriots are stealing the spotlight for another high-profile meeting.

We'll chat about all of this at 12 P.M. Eastern, and we invite you to join us after the jump!

Every week FanHouse looks at some aspect of NFL line play for the weekly Between The Lines feature.

Because of bye weeks, most teams are halfway through their season even as we're getting ready to watch Week 10. The halfway point seems like as good a time as any to roll out complete sacks allowed stats.

These stats were culled by watching each and every sack that has occurred in the NFL this season (with the exception of a couple of minutes of a Redskins-Chiefs game that was lost because of a broadcasting problem). In going back and watching every sack, I timed the time from the snap to the initial hit on the quarterback (then rewound it and timed it a couple of more times to confirm the time) and tried to assign blame to the person responsible for giving up the sack.