In the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens matchups, edge rushers and left tackles have had quite the battles over the years.
From Terrell Suggs and Marvel Smith to Peter Boulware and Oliver Ross, as well as names like Joey Porter Sr. and Jonathan Ogden, and Clark Haggans and Orlando Brown, there were some great battles off the edge in the rivalry matchups.
For Porter Sr., who played for the Steelers from 1999-2006, those matchups were always ones he got up for, especially against a Hall of Famer like Ogden.
Porter, who was drafted by the Steelers in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft, recalled his Welcome to the NFL moment on the Arthur Moats Podcast live from Acrisure Stadium ahead of the Week Five matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
“I was talking shit to Jonathan Ogden. I was a rookie coming into the game, and I’m running my mouth. Jonathan Ogden just signed this huge contract. I get to play third downs, so I’m looking at this dude like ‘You’re like 6’8, wearing some size 17s.’ I’m like, ‘I’m about to run around the corner on this dude, no way he can keep up with me. Ain’t no way he can backpedal faster than me going forward,'” Porter Sr. recalled, according to video via Moats’ YouTube page. “So I’m like ‘Hey Ogden, they paid you all that money for nothing!’ He turns around, looks at me. I say ‘that’s right!’ He turns around again, looks at me, shakes his head.
“So he comes out of the huddle and I get wide and I’m going to take him wide and speed rush him. So I take off wide, he threw me down and belly-flopped right on me. He knocked my whole soul to the sideline. I lost my air, my soul, everything. And I could tell he rolled on me when he belly-flopped on me. He made me feel all of it.
“I’m still on the ground, tapping my helmet from the ground, I’m coming out. He stands up and says ‘Yeah, take your ass to the sideline.’ I said, ‘Damn, these big guys can move.’…I knew then I was in the NFL.”
It comes as no surprise that even as a young pup in the NFL, Porter was yapping, especially in a Ravens matchup. Presumably, Porter is recalling his first matchup with the Ravens and Ogden, which came in Week Two of the 1999 season on the road, which was a 23-20 Steelers loss.
That day, Porter didn’t record a single tackle, sack or quarterback hit as Ogden got the better of him.
But Porter is slightly misremembering that Ogden had just gotten paid in 1999. Ogden was actually paid in August 2000, landing a six-year, $44 million deal from the Ravens that summer. Porter got the better of him in the 2000 season, recording two sacks in a Week Eight 9-6 win over the Ravens on the road, but that moment in his rookie season is quite hilarious from Porter.
He wasn’t exactly wrong in thinking that Ogden with his 6-foot-8, 340-pound frame with size-17 cleats would be able to move fast enough with him. That’s what made Ogden elite though. He was a freakish athlete at the position with his size, ushering a new era of tackles in the NFL.
Porter found that out the hard way, but it also helped him eventually adjust to the NFL, putting together an All-Pro and Pro Bowl career, finishing with 98.0 career sacks.
He won’t forget that first encounter with Ogden though.
