FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Tonight provides another good evening of staggered sports watching, one where I hope that at the end, I'm not staggering with being pissed off.

NFL: First, I'll be tuned to NFL Network a bit after 8 p.m to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals from the Burgh. I'm a Steeler fan, and I have no love whatsoever for the Bengals - a team that talked a great game for a few years, but rarely played up to that level. I don't have any sympathy for their struggles this season. I think they still have more appearances in the police blodder than defensive takeaways. 

Meanwhile, Bengals wide receiver Ocho Cinco Chad Johnson will not play tonight. If you haven't heard, Johnson was deactivated by the Buggles this morning for violating a team rule. ESPN reported it had something to do with an exchange between 85 and head coach Marvin Lewis (remember when he knew what he was doing). A rookie has been called up, and actually had to be flown into Pittsburgh today, to be able to play tonight. This should be good news for the Steelers, who have struggled in the past covering T.J. Houshmazode, so hopefully they can give him a little more attention tonight.

From the Steelers perspective, I'm curious how Willie Parker will respond off a short week, following the game against San Diego where he was busy carrying the ball and probably still isn't 100% healthy between his knee injury and shoulder issue. I also want to see more of the offense I saw last week, with Roethlisberger throwing careful, safe passes, instead of going all Heath Shuler and finding wide-open Colts left, right, and down the middle at key points two weeks ago. 

If the Steelers don't win, I'll be throwing stuff. 

Caps: Later, the Capitals are on CSN at 10:30 p.m. against the Los Angeles Kings from the Great Western Forum, or whatever bank it's named after now. Soon, Citibank will own everything anyway, but whatever. The Caps are coming off a 6-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks last night, and hopefully will turn to Brent Johnson in net on the second of this back-to-back. According to The Washington Post, Mike Green, Sergei Federov, and Alexander Semin all WILL NOT play tonight. Fantastic. 

This is a trap game for the Caps, having played an Anaheim team last night that is tough to play against (because they are low-down thugs), and with a matchup against league-best San Jose on Saturday night. While this is a game the Caps should win, if they somehow were beaten in OT or a shootut and just got a point, I think I'd take it. 

Watch Drew Doughty for the Kings. The young defenseman leads his club in ice time and it will be interesting to see how our old friend Terry Murray matches Doughty up against the Capitals' attack. I don't know if he will want to put him out there when Ovechkin is out with Backstrom and probably Kozlov, but given that the Caps really only have one key scoring line tonight - Doughty will probably get his chance to match wits and skills with The Russian Machine. It should be entertaining to watch.