When the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens face off on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., the Steelers are fighting for their very playoff lives while the Ravens have locked up the first seed in the AFC. That doesn’t matter when it comes to these two teams playing each other, though. It will be a physical battle no matter what is at stake for these two rivals.
When head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about his keys to the Ravens game, he offered up some thoughts of the physicality ahead based on Ravens LB Patrick Queen’s comments from earlier in the season during the Keys To The Game segment of The Mike Tomlin Show.
“I saw what Patrick Queen said a couple weeks ago that a lot of people are unwilling to play their style of ball,” Tomlin said. “He’s right. But I think that’s just our style. And I think that’s why everybody likes the nature of this matchup. That’s why it’s so entertaining. We do play a similar style of ball. Styles do make fights as they say in boxing. So it’s going to be a challenge, no question, but we better be prepared to play 60 minutes.”
Over the years, there certainly have been similarities between the Steelers and the Ravens. Both teams tend to focus on aggressive defenses and having a smash-mouth running game. Since QB Lamar Jackson arrived in Baltimore, he’s brought an explosiveness both in the passing game and the running game that the Steelers struggle to match, but the rest of the similarities are still there.
Whether it was the days of Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed patrolling their respective secondaries from the safety spot to pass rushers like James Harrison and Terrell Suggs, the rivalry has been largely defined by larger-than-life defensive players playing across from each other. Now the Ravens have a formidable inside linebacker tandem in Queen and Roquan Smith while the Steelers bring pass-rushing juice with their pair of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
We would be remiss if we didn’t bring up the run-game component of this rivalry, though. While players like Jerome Bettis and Jamal Lewis are no longer carrying the ball, the Steelers have developed a formidable duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren while Gus Edwards and Justice Hill complement each other well. Especially with Jackson resting with the top seed in the playoffs secured and the potential for bad weather, look for both teams to turn to their running backs.
Will the similar styles look like a boxing fight on Saturday afternoon? Knowing the Steelers and Ravens, it certainly will. The real question will be who is left standing when the clock hits triple zeros.
