Ordinarily when a former player makes a ‘bold playoff prediction' about the team they used to play for, you can count on it being either not that bold, or so bold and out there that it's hard to take them seriously. But when the calculated and well-respected Ryan Clark makes a statement about the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'm not only willing to listen, I'll more often than not be inclined to agree. And to be honest, in this instance, I don't see much bias in Clark's assessment of where the 6-3 Steelers could be at season's end.

Ryan Clark caps this monologue off by calling the possibility of the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting games in the Playoffs “the greatest coup of all-time,” but it's all right there in front of them for the taking. Just look at the remainder of the Steelers schedule the rest of the way and tell me they don't have a better than decent chance of winning the AFC North:

-Weeks 11 and 12, at Cleveland and at Cincinnati: Both of these games got a heck of a lot more manageable in the last 72 hours, given the fact that we now know the Browns and Bengals will both be without their starting quarterbacks the rest of the season.

-Weeks 13 and 14, vs. Arizona and vs. New England: the Cardinals and Patriots have four combined wins and a -184 point differential. The Steelers defense is so good that Mike Tomlin could coax Kordell Stewart out of retirement to play in these two games and Pittsburgh should still win.

-Week 15, at Indianapolis: I'm assuming by week 15 we'll have a better idea of if Indianapolis is actually halfway decent or if this is a fraudulent .500 record, because we're ten weeks in and I still haven't figured it out.

-Week 16, vs. Cincinnati: The Steelers are going to eat up a second helping of Jake Browning like I'm gonna eat up a second helping of stuffing on Thanksgiving next week

-Weeks 17 and 18, at Seattle and at Baltimore: Here's all I'm saying, it's possible (repeat: possible) that the Steelers could enter Week 17 with a playoff spot already clinched, because their next six games should produce no fewer than four wins. It's also possible that Seattle and Baltimore could have postseason berths secured by this point, and therefore not have much to play for.

In all honesty, this shouldn't come as too big of a surprise. Mike Tomlin just refuses to have losing seasons, and with the AFC maybe not quite as good as we expected, why shouldn't we expect that the Steelers, who have a -26 point differential and been out-gained in every game so far this season, would be hosting games in January? And even if they aren't, let's just say Baltimore hangs on to control of the AFC North, the Steelers are still in great position to secure a Wild Card berth.