When the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Baltimore Ravens Saturday, they won’t face QB Lamar Jackson. However, that doesn’t mean it will be easy sledding as the Steelers look to win and keep from being frozen out of the playoffs.
Thanks to a potential winter storm, M&T Bank Stadium could see some form of freezing rain before kickoff and throughout the game.
The worst of the weather is forecast to hit northwest of Baltimore, but with the city right on the edge of the Winter Weather Advisory, it’s wise to look at how weather could impact the game. According to the National Weather Service, snow will start to fall between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the affected areas before switching to just freezing rain by 3 p.m.
The Steelers and Ravens kick off at 4:30 p.m., so if there is any precipitation falling at the stadium, it will likely be some form of rain. The NWS does say that the worst accumulation in terms of ice will occur closer to the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania, so we are unlikely to see a modern-day Ice Bowl on Saturday.
So what does all this mean? Will the game be significantly impacted by the bad weather? Well, no one wants to be drenched by cold rain, much less play in it for three hours. That leads to unsteady footing and makes the football harder to hold onto. Players will need to find ways to keep as warm and dry as much as possible on the sidelines. Then you factor in that the stadium has natural grass, and the playing surface could turn to mud.
The Steelers are hoping that the game will not be a repeat of the 2019 finale between these two teams, a washout both on the field and the scoreboard. In a very similar situation, the Steelers failed to take advantage of a Ravens team resting a number of starters and watched any hope of the playoffs spiral down the drain along with the rainwater in a 28-10 loss.
Will the storm lead to more waterlogged mistakes and make Steeler fans’ hearts as cold as ice? Or will the Steelers be able to shovel their way out of the mess they created during an 0-3 stretch last month? It will be a battle of wills where they need to overcome an opponent looking to avenge an earlier loss this season and less-than-ideal weather.
