The 9-7 Pittsburgh Steelers will play their 17th game of the 2023 regular season on Saturday afternoon, and this week, it will be a road contest against the 13-3 Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers will enter the game as slight road favorites following their big road win last Sunday. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do Saturday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium to come away with their tenth win of the 2023 season.
Snoop Huntley’s Mobility – As expected, the Ravens will rest QB Lamar Jackson on Saturday and that means QB Tyler Huntley will start in his place. While Huntley has played just 29 offensive snaps this season, he has started three games previously against the Steelers. In those three games, “Snoop” has rushed 28 times for 127 yards. He’s a mobile quarterback and while not as mobile as Jackson is, he can still hurt defenses with his legs.
Due to Huntley’s mobility and combined with the fact that the Steelers defense continues to have fresh and moving parts on that side of the football, expect a lot of zone coverages on Saturday from the unit. That should allow for a lot of eyes to be on Huntley especially whenever he drops back to pass. The Steelers simply can’t let Huntley have a ground game effort on Saturday similar to the one that he had to close out the 2021 season. They must practice great contain on defense.
Mindful Muthness – Back in Week 14, Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth caught nine passes for 120 yards. Since then, however, the former second-round draft pick out of Penn State has caught 12 passes for 107 yards in the last five games. He also still has just two touchdown catches on the season with his last one coming way back in Week 3.
With the Ravens expected to sit a lot of their primary defensive players on Saturday against the Steelers, they might wind up playing a lot of zone coverages with two high safeties. If that’s the case, Freiermuth should have a lot of room to work with between the numbers on the field. It would be advisable to get him the football more than three times in the game. Overall, the Ravens have been great this season when it comes to covering tight ends but once again, that unit figures to be without several starters on Saturday.
Ground Grind Galore – On the road in Week 17, the Steelers running back duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren did a great job of delivering power runs, especially in the first half of that contest. In total, the two running backs combined to have 197 rushing yards on a whopping 40 total carries. 20 of those 40 carries came in the first half and netted 141 yards.
On Saturday against the Ravens, it figures to be a cold and wet afternoon. On top of that, the Ravens’ defense will likely be missing a few regulars. Those factors combined set the stage for Harris and Warren to pick up where they left off last Sunday. Another solid ground-and-pound effort in the first half should produce great ahead-of-the-chains scenarios for the Steelers offense just as was the case in Week 17. The Ravens’ run defense has been middling all season as it is especially up the middle, 4.27 yards per carry. In short, the Steelers need to attempt to run early and often on Saturday and they need to be successful at it as well.
Pickens On The Humphrey Replacement – Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey will not play on Saturday against the Steelers. That should result in CB Rock Ya-Sin starting in his place on the right side. The Steelers’ passing game should center around picking on Ya-Sin on Saturday especially when he is asked to line up across from WR George Pickens.
While the Ravens are likely to play a lot of zone coverage on Saturday against the Steelers, Pickens still should garner his fair share of targets. Remember, Pickens caught six passes for 130 yards and a touchdown in the week 5 game against the Ravens and he was targeted 10 times in total. There’s no reason to not feed him the football as much as possible on Saturday in Baltimore especially when Ya-Sin is the one who is asked to cover him.
Point Of No Return – Have you paid attention to the Ravens’ return game this season? It’s been very good overall. In fact, the Ravens rank fourth in the NFL in punt return average at 14.4 yards and eighth in the league on kickoff returns at 24.5 yards. One of those punt returns resulted in a touchdown and won them a game several weeks ago in overtime.
In the Week 5 game against the Ravens, the Steelers coverage units did a great job as not only did they not allow a single kickoff return, but they also gave up just 13 yards on two punt returns as three others were fair caught. A repeat of that Week 5 coverage performance would be advisable, especially in a must-win Saturday road game that figures to be low-scoring and played in bad weather. Poor coverage units on Saturday in Baltimore certainly could play a role in a Pittsburgh loss.
