Everyone is talking about this being Jerome's last season, but I'm not so sure. No, he's not a starter anymore, but he's still deadly in short yardage situations and he's got to be about the best guy in the world to have in your locker room. If the Lions were smart, they'd sign him for a year. Even if he only carried 5 or 6 times a game he'd be huge in the feel good department, and let's face it, with Mike Martz as the offensive coordinator they'll need a jolly guy to balance him out.

If the game follows the pattern of the past few weeks, however, the Bus will likely not play a major role except to give the sideline cameras a big target. Someway, somehow, on their way to the Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steelers suddenly became a passing team — and quite a good one at that. It's been an amazing transformation to watch and is probably more than a little responsible for their waxing of the 1, 2, and 3 seeds in the AFC.

Let me be the 347th person to point out how scary good Ben Roethlisbergermeister has been. Not just in these last few games either. According to Football Outsiders, Big Ben has been the third ranked QB in the league (based on DVOA) in both his first two years. That's right: This has been Ben's sophomore slump year. You'd think a second-year QB in his early twenties might be a little overwhelmed by all the hoopla, but Ben has keeping his head on straight and doing better than me at keeping up on his blog, although I suspect at some point this week — probably when he gets over to Windsor — he'll show the world how he can drink like a champion.

Well, he had better be especially good versus Seattle, because the Seahawks can stop the run and the Steelers running game has actually been little more than mediocre. When the Steelers have the ball, the big issue will be how well the Seahawks can contain the Steelers passing game. The Seahawks pass defense has been their most glaring weakness. Yes, I know they shut down Steve Smith, but really, how hard was it to figure that out? Can you see Mike Holmgren watching the film of the Carolina-Chicago game and getting a full-on Dick Vermeil-quality scrunchy face every time he saw Steve Smith covered one-on-one?

The most interesting aspect of this game will be when the Seahawks try to run the ball. Pittsburgh has the second ranked run defense (again, based on DVOA), but the Seahawks have beaten both the Redskins and the Giants, each of whom has a top five run defense also. In contrast, Pittsburgh stopped Denver's top ranked rushing game just two weeks ago. Whether the Steelers can stop the run may decide the game.