During his appearance on 93.7 The Fan this week, former Steelers DL Chris Hoke suggested that the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens tend to have bad records in games following those against one another. Perhaps that might have been true at one time, but it’s actually far from the case in recent history. And that’s good news, considering they have the Cleveland Browns coming up on Thursday.
By my calculations, not including postseason games, the Steelers are 7-2 in their next game after playing the Ravens. That goes back through the 2018 season, an odd number because sometimes they end the season playing one another.
Perhaps part of the myth stems from the 2017 season, a year in which the Steelers went 13-3. They ended up playing two of their defining games that season after playing the Ravens. The first was a shocking blowout at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The second was the infamous “surviving the ground” non-touchdown by Jesse James against the New England Patriots. That loss cost them the top seed and pitted them against the Jaguars again, who beat them in the playoffs.
Even before 2017, the Steelers were 4-2 between 2014 and 2016 after playing the Ravens. They did have an ugly stretch in 2012-2013, during which they went 0-4, but they simply were not a good team at the time. They went 7-2 prior to that, going back to the beginning of the Mike Tomlin era.
All told, the Steelers under Mike Tomlin are 18-9 in the game immediately following the Baltimore Ravens. That’s a .667 winning percentage, and that’s certainly nothing to sneeze at. Even better is the fact that recent history looks good in that department. They are 3-0 against their next opponent after the Ravens over the past two years. The Steelers even went 6-0 in their first six games after playing the Ravens since the founding of the franchise. So this isn’t just about changes in the rules making the game softer and easier to respond the next week.
The one wrinkle in all this is that the Steelers’ next game is on a short week on the road. Historically, home teams tend to have an increased advantage on short weeks. But then again, the Browns are not a very good team this year.
Either way, the point is the Steelers, or more so their fans should have no added worry of a disappointment against the Browns just because their previous game came against the Ravens. If anything, the Steelers may be energized after playing Baltimore—especially since they usually win lately.
There is a perception about the Steelers-Ravens rivalry that it is so physical it is unlike any other game. The idea is that they beat each other up so badly that it costs them the following week. That has not been the case for the Steelers.
But perhaps the Ravens should worry because they are 1-3 after playing the Steelers the last three years. They have won most of their games after playing the Steelers, however, beyond their most recent history. That even extends to before Lamar Jackson, when they were at a low point, going 3-1 in the two years prior to drafting him.
