Steelers vs Titans Thursday night game thread (Oakland baseball ALDS too)

The Steelers are the favorite in this one mainly because the Titans are arguably the worst team in football. The Steelers are coming off a win over their interstate rival Eagles last week. It was a rebound game for them as they had lost their previous game to the Raiders.

The Steelers will again be without Troy Polamalu who aggravated the calf injury which had kept him out the early part of the season. Will Allen will get the start over Ryan Mundy who had been replacing Polamalu.

Mundy was the one who caused two concussions on the Raiders including the helmet-to-helmet hit on Darrius Heyward-Bey that had him taken to the hospital. DHB missed the following week in Denver and Mundy was fined $21k for the hit. He also gave up the touchdown to DHB and was shaken out of his shoes on the 60-yard run by McFadden. The Titans will miss his poor play but not his head hunting.

The Titans will be without Jake Locker at quarterback. He will be replaced by former starter, Matt Hasselbeck. The Titans will try to get running back Chris Johnson going again in this game. The Steelers are susceptible to the run. Darren McFadden had 113 yards on them in his one good game this season.

Former Raiders third round pick cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke is a member of the Steelers. The fastest player in the 2011 draft was waived by the Raiders earlier this season and the Steelers picked him up off the waiver wire. He doesn't see the field on defense much, if at all. He primarily plays on special teams.

The Titans feature Raiders former two-time sack leader, Kamerion Wimbley at defensive end. He was cut this offseason to take his bloated salary off the books. He played strong side linebacker for the Raiders but rushed the passer quite a bit. He struggled in coverage so the Titans played on his strengths and moved him to defensive end fulltime. He has one sack in five starts this season along with 9 combined tackles.

About an hour into this game, the Oakland A's will face off against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series. The A's came back to force this fifth and final game of the series after being down 0-2 to the Tigers. Last night they won it in their typical 2012 fashion-with a walk-off hit.

With a win tonight, they would head to the ALCS to face the winner of the Yankees vs Orioles series. The Yankees currently lead that series 2-1.

An added note, if the A's win and take the ALCS to seven games, the Raiders Sunday home game against the Jaguars would move to Monday night. Something to think about.

Enjoy a great night of sports and let's keep the discussion going.