One of the key measuring sticks to define greatness in the NFL is determined by how a team can fare when it loses key pieces. The NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint, and the teams that are able to return to full health in December, as the Giants did last season, often position themselves best for a Super Bowl championship.

No team has been hit harder by injuries to key performers this season than Pittsburgh, with Troy Polamalu and Rashard Mendenhall missing most of the season, and James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley, Antonio Brown, Maurkice Pouncey and Ben Roethlisberger all missing action. With a relatively soft schedule down the stretch outside of another key rematch in Baltimore in two weeks, what’s most important for Pittsburgh is that it holds off a surging Bengals squad that it will face in Week 16 and find a way to rest its talent enough to hit January as fully intact as possible, especially at the quarterback position.

Green Bay already has placed the highly underrated, hard-hitting Desmond Bishop, rookie pass rusher Nick Perry, steady ORT Bryan Bulaga and workmanlike RB Cedric Benson on injured reserve, not to mention being without impact performers such as ROLB Clay Matthews, SS Charles Woodson and WR Greg Jennings against Detroit last week. They have been as decimated as the Steelers but remain very much in contention for a divisional championship, despite being robbed of a win in Seattle by awful replacement officiating.