First an apology.

During our Week Seven staff picks, a handful of us picked the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Cincinnati Bengals in complete defiance against our supposed nature. Now I'm not callus enough to name names (Anthony, Andrew, Dave... it's right here) but as for the rest of us (aka, those that will stay at CJ beyond this week), we picked the Bengals. The majority of ESPN's crew picked the Pittsburgh Steelers, except for Eric Allen, Ron Jaworski and NFL Insiders Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen. Pete Prisco with CBSSports.com predicts a one-point win over the Steelers this Sunday:

Both of these teams come in reeling a bit. The Bengals have lost two consecutive games, while the Steelers lost last week at Tennessee. The loser is in big trouble in the division race. Neither defense has played as well as expected. I think we see a high-scoring game as the Bengals take it at home.

Prisco was one of three people at CBSSports.com picking Cincinnati over Pittsburgh, including Dave Richard and the Prediction Machine (wait.. that's not people at all!). Michael Silver and Les Carpenter at Yahoo! Sports pick Cincinnati.

Peter King agrees with Prisco on a forecasted 23-20 win during Sunday Night Football.

Blah start for 2-3 Pittsburgh, allowing 115 points and a 93.8 passer rating, with the knowledge that Troy Polamalu could be missing for multiple weeks now with his strained calf. Andy Dalton had two sub-par games against the Steelers last year, but Polamalu was there in both to torment him and to disguise deep coverages against A.J Green. I like Cincinnati, narrowly, mostly because of the play-making Polamalu's absence.