Holy Crap...

The Steelers will have a tough go of it next year. This is from Peter King's column today, just as an FYI to Steelers fans and people indifferent to the Steelers:


Stat of the Week


Has anyone out there looked at the Steelers' schedule for this fall? Schedules are organic things in terms of degree of difficulty; they tend to change week-by-week during the season. But looking at Pittsburgh's slate right now, we might be seeing the toughest schedule a team has had in recent history.

Lots of teams have division schedules as tough or tougher than six games with Cleveland, Cincinnati and Baltimore, though the rising Browns, Carson Palmer and the presumably rejuvenated Ravens will be a difficult six-pack.

Amazing. Horrendously amazing, if you bleed black and gold.

Schedule factoids:

• Eight of Pittsburgh's 10 non-AFC North games are against 2007 playoff teams.

• All 10 non-division foes were .500 or better in 2007.

• New England plays four games against teams that finished over .500 in the 2007 regular season. Pittsburgh plays 10.

• Excluding the Steelers in 2005, the last four Super Bowl champs (Giants, Colts, Pats, Pats) are on Pittsburgh's schedule.