Pittsburgh gets another crack at NFC East tonight

The Pittsburgh Steelers have proved they’re among the AFC’s elite teams; they’re 5-0 in the conference.

But can they beat an NFC East team? So far, no.

The Steelers, who came into the season with the NFL’s toughest schedule, have lost to Philadelphia and the New York Giants. They will get another crack at the division tonight when they play at Washington.

Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who already has been sacked 23 times, is expecting to see the same type of aggressive pass rush he saw against the Eagles and Giants.

“The whole NFC East” is similar to that, he said. “They’re throwing a lot of blitzes at you. They’re all big guys who can move around and throw different looks at you and try to confuse you. We’ve seen it twice so far, and we’ll see it again this week.”

The Steelers are also going to see plenty of Washington’s Clinton Portis, who leads the league in rushing. Pittsburgh is waiting for that with the NFL’s third-ranked run defense.

Not since 1984 have the Redskins played host to a game on the night before the presidential election.

ESPN has prerecorded interviews with the candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, that will run at halftime.

“When I saw that at the beginning of the year, I thought [NFL Commissioner] Roger Goodell had a sense of humor, putting that game together on Monday night,” Washington Coach Jim Zorn said. “It is pretty incredible that we get to be here in our nation’s capital and playing a very good football team and then have the election the next day. There will be a lot of excitement around the D.C. area, no question.”

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sam.farmer@latimes.com