MONDAY NIGHT PREVIEW

Pre-season expectations mean so little, don’t they?

Every year, the NFL — and all sports leagues, really — offers example after example of surprise after surprise just two or three weeks into the schedule.

Two such surprise teams are on display in this week’s Monday Night Football matchup: The Pittsburgh Steelers at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Steelers are winless (0-1-1), the Bucs undefeated (2-0) — just as nobody expected.

Especially considering the Steelers opened against the hadn’t-won-in-ages Cleveland Browns, and the Bucs faced two of the top teams in the NFC: New Orleans and defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.

Just as surprisingly, of the two starting quarterbacks, Tampa Bay’s temp Ryan Fitzpatrick (pictured) is the one who set a new NFL record with two 400-yard, four-touchdown passing efforts to open a season, while Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger is the one who has thrown three interceptions and lost three fumbles.

One thing we can probably bank on in this game: Prolific passing. Fitzpatrick and Roethlisberger rank 1-2 in the NFL in passing yards so far, with 819 and 787, respectively.

Just how much of a factor Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown is will be among the game’s top storylines.

Brown, one of the most accomplished NFL receivers in modern times, last week moped worse than ever — he claimed because the Steelers lost, but what sure looked and felt like an extreme pout over not getting thrown the ball often enough by Roethlisberger.