Bonjour from Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, where the Stade de France hosts the first NFL regular-season game ever played in France. Kickoff is 2:30 in the afternoon in Paris, 9:30 a.m. Eastern on NFL Network, with croissants for breakfast and football for brunch. The Saints are the designated home team. Ed Kowalski speaks for Pittsburgh's six Lombardi Trophies. Andre Thibault speaks for New Orleans, a city with a French accent of its own.
Andre: Let's settle something first, Ed. This is a home game for us in every way that matters. La Nouvelle-Orléans. The French Quarter. We're basically visiting cousins.
Ed: Cute. Pittsburgh has a little history with the French too, Andre. Ask anybody down at the Point about the old forts. I don't bring it up to be rude. I bring it up because we never forget anything.
Andre: That's the most Pittsburgh thing anyone has ever said. You brought a centuries-old grudge to a football game in Paris.
Ed: Continuity, Andre. We don't let things go. Not grudges, not coaches, not the Terrible Towel in my glove box.
Last week, Steelers: Pittsburgh trailed Tampa Bay 16-3 entering the fourth quarter and won 26-19 in overtime. Jamel Dean, a former Buccaneer, set up a field goal with an interception and a 40-yard return, and Jalen Ramsey ended it with a fourth-down sack. Pittsburgh played without receivers Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson because of injuries.
Ed: Chuck Noll would have hated the first three quarters and loved the last one. Rodgers got sacked five times early and kept coming back to Metcalf. That's the whole Steelers lesson in one afternoon: you get knocked down, you get back up and throw it to the big guy.
Last week, Saints: Tyler Shough threw touchdown passes to rookie Bryce Lance (his first NFL catch for a score), Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave, and ran for another. Cornerback Martin Emerson intercepted two passes, and Isaiah Stalbird forced a kickoff fumble just before halftime that flipped the whole game. Shough has been playing through broken bones in his left, non-throwing hand.
Andre: I love this team because we grow our own. Shough, Lance, Stalbird. Kellen Moore calls the plays, and those kids are learning to finish. They also learned that a 24-point cushion in New Jersey can shrink in a hurry. We'll work on it on the flight.
The matchup: Start with T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Cam Heyward against a Saints offensive front protecting a young quarterback with a sore hand. Then flip it: Cam Jordan, Chase Young and Carl Granderson against a 42-year-old Rodgers who got hit plenty in Tampa. Both defenses use a 3-4 base. Metcalf against Kool-Aid McKinstry is the one-on-one to circle. For New Orleans, Kamara is still the Swiss Army knife, and Olave is the deep threat.
The numbers: Pittsburgh has scored 137 and allowed 128. New Orleans has scored 152 and allowed 178.
Andre: One more thing, Ed. Your coach, Mike McCarthy, once beat the Steelers in a Super Bowl when he coached Green Bay.
Ed: And now he works for us. That's how you win a rivalry. You hire it.
Andre: We'll have beignets on the sideline. You'll have pierogies.
Ed: And the Eiffel Tower will have a Terrible Towel on it by halftime.
Bon match to both sides, and a big welcome to every French fan seeing their first live NFL game.
My call: Steelers 27, Saints 22.