The Week 18 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens might have vastly different meanings for each team, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t both playing to win. The Steelers need the win plus some outside help to keep their season alive, while the Ravens already have the first-round bye locked up. On Wednesday afternoon, head coach John Harbaugh of the Ravens announced that Jackson will be resting for the final game of the regular season and Tyler Huntley will be starting against the Steelers.
During his Wednesday media availability, Jackson was asked if it is hard to sit out against a rival knowing they could help end Pittsburgh’s season.
“I believe Snoop [Huntley] can get the job done,” Jackson said in a clip posted by the Ravens’ account on X. “We got guys who [are] going to go out there and ball out. I got all the faith in my team.”
The Ravens are a 13-3 football team, the top record in the league. You don’t achieve that level of success without depth on the roster. With the 53-man roster limits in the NFL, they will not be able to rest everybody, but there will likely be at least a few more key players who are either inactive or on a strict snap count for the game. The last time these two teams were in this exact same scenario, the Steelers got crushed 28-10 in the final week of the season by Robert Griffin III while Jackson sat out to rest for the playoffs.
The Steelers are quite familiar with Huntley, almost as much as they are with Jackson. This will be Huntley’s fourth game against the Steelers. His record is 1-2 against them. The average score of those games is just about what you would expect between the Steelers and Ravens. The Steelers averaged 15.3 points in those games, while the Ravens averaged 14. Against the Steelers, Huntley has completed 38 passes on 64 attempts for 359 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. He also added another 28 carries for 127 yards in those games. The production hasn’t been great overall against the Steelers, but he was named to the Pro Bowl in 2022 after starting just four games.
The Steelers bested the Ravens earlier in the season to hand them one of their three losses with Jackson at quarterback. Should the Steelers win this game, they will have swept the Ravens for the 2023 season and will finish 5-1 in the AFC North.
