The powerful NFC East had utterly feasted on the AFC North this season, as if it were the last morsels of nutrition in the midst of a football famine. (We ranked the divisions last week, and it was no contest between the two.)

 

The AFC North was a dreadful 1-6 vs. the Glamour Division heading into the Pittsburgh-Washington game, the lone victory Cleveland's shocking 35-14 Monday night win over the Giants that proved a – how do you say? – statistical outlier for both teams.  

 

But perhaps Monday night is the magic charm: the AFC North has captured its only two inter-conference victories on Monday night. (The only remaining inter-conference MNF battle is Cleveland at Philly on Dec. 15.)

 

The undefeated Titans are obviously the team to beat in the AFC. But Pittsburgh clearly stepped away from the crowded pack of 5-3 and 4-4 teams to establish itself as the team with the best shot of toppling the Titans.

 

The Steelers are an imperfect team, with problems on the offensive line, few game-breaking offensive weapons and now a quarterback with an injured throwing shoulder.

 

But if the playoffs started today, the Steelers would have a first-round bye and would be favored to make a trip to Tennessee for the AFC title.

 

Wow! Last we heard Leftwich was a short-order cook at the Waffle Shop in D.C. (Actually, he's been with the Steelers all season and made a couple appearances earlier this year ... but our story sounds better).

 

Leftwich is the poster boy for how fast life changes in the NFL. In August of 2007, he was the promising young QB of the upstart AFC power Jaguars. In September 2007, he was on the street looking for work, dumped in favor of David Garrard.

 

He replaced the injured Ben Roethlisberger Monday night. We expected a sack fest. After all, even the mobile Big Ben was unable to escape the pass rush this year behind the porous Pittsburgh offensive line. 

 

Instead, Leftwich, who has all the mobility of a beached whale, looked like, well, the promising young quarterback we remembered from 2005. He led the moribund Pittsburgh offense to 13 points, completing 7 of 10 passes for 129 yards, 12.9 YPA, 1 TD, 0 INT and a nifty 145.8 passer rating.

 

Pittsburgh's D has consistently been one of the best in the NFL this year, but they've hardly faced a murderer's row of offensive opposition. The schedule included offensive lightweights such as Cleveland, Baltimore, Jacksonville, and Cincinnati.

 

It had its most impressive effort of the year in the win over Washington. Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell had gone eight games without throwing a pick. Pittsburgh picked him off twice. Redskins running back Clinton Portis was the league's leading rusher, with 944 yards through eight games. Pittsburgh held him to 51 yards on 13 carries, his lowest output of the season.

 

Mark your calendar for a little pre-Christmas feast of football on December 21. That's when the Steelers visit the Titans for a game that could determine the AFC's No. 1 seed.

 

History shows that when the Redskins lose in their last game before a presidential election, the party out of power wins the White House. That would mean Democrat Barack Obama wins today. Good news for about half of you, bad news for the rest. (In our Troll Poll over the past week, 41 percent of you said you're voting for John McCain; 37 percent were voting for Obama.)

 

But whatever you think of our sh*tty, knock-down, drag-out system of picking a leader, it's better than all the rest that came before it. The Roman Empire used assassinations, imperial edicts and civil wars as a political process. We use the ballot box.

 

So go out and vote.