Monday Night Football:
–The Detroit Lions defeated the San Francisco 49ers 40-34. Detroit quarterback Jared Goff threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns in the game. The Lions improved to 14-2 this season and remain tied with the Minnesota Vikings for first place in the NFC North. Those two teams have a critical match-up this weekend which will decide their division and the top overall seed in the National Football Conference. That game has been flexed to Sunday night.
The Lions and Vikings played in Week 6 of the regular season, with Detroit winning 31-29. The Lions kicked a game-winning field goal with :15 seconds remaining in the game, after the Vikings had scored three times in the fourth quarter to take the lead.
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Monday that his team is nearing full health heading into their regular-season finale against Cincinnati Saturday night. The team should see all players injured in recent weeks available for the game, including defensive back Joey Porter, Jr. Kick-off Saturday is just after 8pm. The Bengals are currently 1-1/2 point favorites.
IF the Steelers win and Ravens lose, the Steelers would host the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card round. IF both the Steelers and Ravens win, the Steelers would travel to Houston. IF the Steelers lose and the Chargers defeat Las Vegas, the Steelers would drop to the sixth seed and travel to Baltimore ).
The Steelers enter the game on a three-game losing streak. The Bengals have won their last four games since losing to the Steelers. ) The Bengals are coming off a 499 total yards performance against Denver last week ).
Interesting note regarding former Steelers quarterbacks — Mason Rudolph, Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Josh Dobbs all scored touchdowns in Week 17 games last week. Rudolph and Pickett as starters. Trubisky and Dobbs came into games as back-ups.