It wasn’t a clean sweep. But it was close. And after the Pittsburgh Steelers knocked off the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon, the Steelers’ social media team kept receipts. As shared to their Instagram page on Victory Monday, they posted this graphic of nearly the entire NFL.com crew picking Baltimore in their Week Five picks.
They included the caption “bombastic side eye” with a photo of George Pickens…and his bombastic side eye.
In the graphic, the only analyst who picked Pittsburgh was Adam Rank, predicting a 20-17 Steelers win. He wasn’t far off, Pittsburgh rallying for 14 points in the fourth quarter, coming back to beat Baltimore 17-10. It’s a reminder that the “on-paper” aspect of these games don’t really matter. They’re always close. Ten of their last 11 games have been decided by one possession while the Steelers haven’t notched a two-score victory over the Ravens since Week Four of the 2017 season, a 26-9 win.
In fairness, a broader view of the national media landscape shows more balanced selections. In our weekly “how the national media is picking this game” article, excluding Dave Bryan and my selections, seven media members picked the Ravens to win. Five chose the Steelers.
On paper, Baltimore looked like the better team. Stronger quarterback play, run game, run defense, and better health. But in typical Steelers/Ravens fashion, the game was close and went down to the wire. Pittsburgh found a way to make the last play, QB Kenny Pickett hitting WR George Pickens for a 41-yard score while Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt slammed the door shut late.
To the winner go the spoils and Pittsburgh got in on some of the fun, a much better Monday than when you’re running social media and the Steelers get blown out by the Houston Texans. Though judging by the replies to their post, fans still aren’t satisfied with the state of the team.
