Sam Clayton is back. A little late, but he’s back. You know the drill by now. Here’s a refresher of Sam’s year-long stats and then, of course, his pick for tonight’s game.

94-53, +654.5 dimes ... 66/104 winning days ... 13/17 winning weeks ... 4/4 winning months ... 3/4 Steelers picks

STEELERS -5.5

“People are questioning this spread and for all the right reasons. I’ve heard everything from Vegas begging for Chargers money to setting a trap on the Steelers’ backers. Still, I really believe that Pittsburgh needs an impressive home showing and after two extremely bitter road losses, they take care of business. Heinz Field has been their safe haven the past couple seasons, and they’ve been tremendous both SU (6-0) and ATS (5-1) over the last six home contests. San Diego doesn’t travel very well, especially all the way across country to face a hungry, determined Steelers team. That math just doesn’t add up for me.

“LaDainian Tomlinson was out last week with a bad wheel and while he IS playing tonight, he’s still not going to be the LT we all know and love/hate. His inability to make precise cuts and set up the San Diego play-action attack will be one of the main reasons for the Chargers’ sluggish offense. As far as defenses go, Pittsburgh’s tenacious D actually didn’t play that bad the last few weeks. The high scoring final scores don’t tell the entire story, as mistakes by Big Ben and the offense (remember the pick-six last week) really didn’t help the cause.

“If Roethlisberger and Co. can control the football and limit their mistakes, they could win by 10. I think it’s going to be a little closer than that, and San Diego could very well strike first. However, when all is said and done, Pittsburgh is going to come out on top. Mike Tomlin and his squad have had this game circled all week long and with a towel frenzied crowd at Heinz Field, the Steelers will shut down Philip Rivers and look to Big Ben to capitalize on great field position.”

…there you have it.

Here we go.