Steelers-Ravens, a rivalry matchup that is circled every year on the calendar — twice.
Each and every time the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens come together for an AFC North showdown, there’s usually a lot riding on the line, standing within the division at the top of the list.
That’s the case once again on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium as the Steelers find themselves in a chance to jump into first place in the rugged AFC North early in the season, while the Ravens have an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the division with a third road win, making it all but impossible for other teams to come back within the division early in the season.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin knows the importance and the significance of Sunday’s matchup, not only that it’s Steelers-Ravens and will be an entertaining matchup, but that the game in Week Five means so much to the division standings, even with a lot of football left to play.
Speaking with Steelers.com’s Bob Pompeani for his keys to the game against the Ravens Saturday morning, Tomlin highlighted the importance of not letting the Ravens out of the gate at 3-0 in the division, while also looking forward to a matchup where two teams are going to be playing “extremely hard football” the way it’s meant to be played between the white lines.
“If you’ve been a part of this, man, you love it. You appreciate it, you respect it. You respect the entertainment value of it, what it does for our fans and their fans, and it’s something to be cool to be a part of,” Tomlin said to Pompeani regarding the Steelers-Ravens matchups, according to video via Steelers.com. “But just specifically in terms of this one, there’s a lot of significance. The Ravens are 2-0, in the division. They’ve traveled to Cincinnati and the Cleveland and have gotten road wins to start the season.
“We can’t allow that to be 3-0. We win this game, obviously we’re in a good position relative to the division, but we can’t allow them to get outta the gate 3-0 in divisional road games,” Tomlin added. “And so there’s a lot that has our attention, both present day and cumulatively, in terms of the traditional component of this matchup. One thing, rest assured, that you gonna get is two teams going at each other extremely hard, playing football the way it’s supposed to be played.”
So far on the season, Baltimore is 2-0 in the division and on the road to boot, thanks to a 27-24 win on the road in Week Two against the Cincinnati Bengals and then a 28-3 win over the Cleveland Browns in Week Four, dismantling the league’s best defense in the Browns through four quarters.
Now comes the matchup against the Steelers, who are backsliding quite a bit entering the matchup.
Pittsburgh is coming off of a shellacking from the Houston Texans in Week Four, 30-6, which marked the second 23-point or greater defeat on the season after Week One’s 30-7 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers at home.
The Steelers have struggled to stop the run and slow down the opposing team’s top receiver, and hasn’t been able to do much of anything at all offensively through the season’s first four games.
But, if there’s ever a time to get right and get back to Steelers football the way they want to play it, it’s in a physical, tone-setting matchup against the Ravens. The last time Pittsburgh hosted Baltimore, the Steelers lost 16-14 with backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky coming into the game in the first quarter after quarterback Kenny Pickett suffered a concussion.
After that, Pittsburgh ripped off four straight wins to close the season, narrowly missing the playoffs in the final week of the season. Pittsburgh desperately needs to get back on track on both sides of the football Sunday. Now is as good a time as any, especially with the importance of the game.
