Welcome into a locked-on crossover. I'm James Rupin, along with John Ledyard. We did this the first time the Steelers and Bengals played, and we're doing it again. It's locked on Steelers, locked on Bengals, a crossover edition. John Ledyard is with me. And John, of course, it's fitting, at least here in Cincinnati, that the Bengals, five and six, their playoff hopes, their fringe

playoff hopes are dependent on a matchup against the Steelers. It's really fitting for the Marvin

Louis era.

Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's pretty funny that, you know, all of these two teams have been

through back and forth and the Bengals, you know, losing eight to the last nine against

Pittsburgh and obviously having a lot of struggles in Cincinnati against the Steelers as of late.

I don't think they've beaten the Steelers there since 2013.

And so, you know, it kind of, it's funny that it comes down to this because for Cincinnati,

the playoffs are still very much in the picture because the AFC so bad, not necessarily

because they've

been great or anything, but if you get to 6 and 6, the rest of their schedule is decently

manageable. And for Pittsburgh, the division's kind of all but wrapped up, but you really need

to do it. I mean, you're trying for that number one thing. You don't want to have to go to New

England. You still have to play New England later in the regular season.

I still, I think New England's a better team.

I don't see Pittsburgh winning that game.

So I think that a lot kind of rides on this and every other game for the Steelers if they have that number one seat hopes because they're hoping you can get to the point

where New England might slip up and the Steelers don't want to be that team that's so less of stakes, certainly, for the Steelers,

but at the same time there's still something there, and any time you play Cincinnati,

the competitive juices are always flowing pretty freely.

Make sure you follow John on Twitter at Ledyard NFL Draft.

I'm on Twitter at James Rupin, and make sure you check out Locked on Steelers and Locked on Bengals.com.

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