Depot Roundtable: Steelers Vs. Ravens Wild Card Preview

It all comes down to this for the Pittsburgh Steelers. All the hard work since March, the grinding day after day from July until now, it all comes down to one game: the AFC Wild Card matchup at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore between the No. 3 Ravens and the No. 6 Steelers.

It’s all about the game. To channel Motorhead and that great song: It’s all about the game and how you play it. All about control and if you can take it. All about your debt and if you can pay it. It’s all about pain and who’s gonna make it.

The Steelers, mired in a four-game losing streak, need to figure out a way to make it all work on Saturday night. This is a team that at one point looked like a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Now, the Steelers appear doomed to be one-and-done. But this is a good matchup for the Steelers as they’re familiar with the Ravens and have had success against their AFC North rivals.

Here at Steelers Depot, we’re doing something new this season. While Alex Kozora and Dave Bryan give their in-depth breakdown and preview of the game weekly on The Terrible Podcast, Joe Clark, Ross McCorkle, Scott Brown, Troy Montgomery, and I are doing a weekly roundtable, answering key questions ahead of each game.

Today, we examine the Steelers’ Wild Card matchup at M&T Bank Stadium Saturday night against the Ravens.

QUESTION 1: WHO IS THE STEELERS’ X FACTOR AGAINST THE RAVENS?

Josh Carney: OLB Alex Highsmith. There’s going to be quite a bit of attention paid to T.J. Watt in this one, and rightfully so, but that will leave Highsmith on an island once again across from LT Ronnie Stanley. In the last matchup in Week 16, Highsmith had a big night, forcing an early strip-sack fumble.

Highsmith finished with five pressures in that Week 16 loss and had two run stops. He’s a real force off the edge opposite Watt and will need to have another big game against Stanley and the Ravens. The Steelers’ defense will need to create splash plays against Baltimore. Highsmith will be a big part of that.

Joe Clark: RB Najee Harris. The Steelers haven’t run the ball well during their four-game losing streak, and as a whole their offense has suffered. If the Steelers want to beat the Ravens, they’re going to have to be the ball-control team they were earlier this season. Getting Harris going early would go a long way toward that.

If the ground game struggles, the Steelers are going to struggle. They need Harris to pick up some chunk runs and help open things up through the air.

Ross McCorkle: S DeShon Elliott. He was a big part of stopping Derrick Henry and the Ravens’ tight ends in Week 11 when the Steelers held the Ravens to 16 points. He wasn’t available the second time around with an injury. His big-nickel capabilities and physicality near the line of scrimmage will need to be a big part of limiting Henry and the Ravens’ tight ends. That becomes more important with Zay Flowers out.

Scott Brown: LB Patrick Queen. He played one of his best games as a Steeler last Saturday albeit in a fourth straight Steelers loss. Queen needs to be that active, playmaking self for the Steelers to have any chance at beating the team that let him walk in free agency.

Queen could find himself spying Lamar Jackson or covering Mark Andrews. And then there is preventing King Henry from giving him a chest tattoo with his helmet. It’s a lot. Just like the contract the Steelers signed Queen to last March.

Troy Montgomery: WR George Pickens. This is the sword the Steelers live and die by. Since he suffered his hamstring injury, the Steelers’ offense has totally gone off the rails. In his two games since returning, Pickens has not been a much of a factor. The season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals was arguably Pickens’ worst game as a pro.

Therefore, he needs to respond well against the Ravens. He was one of the main reasons the Steelers beat the Ravens in their first matchup, posting eight catches for 89 yards. Without him, they lost the rematch. Now, Pickens can quiet his doubters by having another strong performance against the Ravens.

QUESTION 2: WHAT IS THE MATCHUP TO WATCH IN STEELERS-RAVENS?

Josh Carney: DL Larry Ogunjobi vs. RG Daniel Faalele. Notice a theme here? Things will be won and lost in the trenches Saturday night. A lot of time and attention will be centered on the likes of Alex Highsmith, Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt for the Steelers, but Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee Larry Ogunjobi needs to have a big game.

He’ll find himself matched up against massive Ravens RG Daniel Faalele. On paper, it’s a favorable matchup for the Steelers. Faalele has struggled for much of the season, allowing 32 pressures in pass protection while having some issues with his size and athleticism in the run game.

Ogunjobi has had a quiet year with just 14 total pressures, but he has 17 run stops and has played the run well. If Pittsburgh is going to smash the run against Derrick Henry, Ogunjobi needs to win his matchup with Faalele time and time again.

Joe Clark: OLB T.J. Watt vs. OT Roger Rosengarten. Rosengarten has had a solid rookie season, and in two games against Pittsburgh, he’s limited Watt to just one sack. Watt should have some extra motivation coming into this one given his lack of a playoff win in a Steelers uniform and his absence from the playoffs last year due to an injury. While he hasn’t closed the season on the same dominant note he started on, Watt can make an impact if he can continually win his matchup and get into the backfield for run stops or especially sacks.

Ross McCorkle: OG Mason McCormick (or Spencer Anderson) versus DT Nnamdi Madubuike. McCormick broke his hand last game and may end up missing this Wild Card game. I don’t see how an offensive lineman can play effectively with a broken hand given how important use of hands and grip strength are to the position. Madubuike aligned near McCormick the most last time around and he feasted on the Steelers’ offense. He generated five total pressures, including a half sack, and had seven total tackles. They can’t allow that kind of disruption up the middle again.

Scott Brown: RT Broderick Jones vs. OLB Kyle Van Noy. Russell Wilson has looked increasingly antsy in the pocket, and it’s no wonder. He’s depending on Van Jefferson to get open and Jones to protect him. It won’t matter who the Steelers trot out at QB next season if they don’t give that player a chance.

Van Noy is perennially underrated and will give Jones everything he can handle. Both OTs must hold up for the Steelers to spring the upset. At a minimum, they will feel a lot better about Jones, their LT in 2025, if the former first-round pick ends the season on a positive note.

Troy Montgomery: CB Joey Porter Jr. vs. WR Rashod Bateman. This is a matchup Porter needs to win. Zay Flowers is the Ravens’ best receiver, but he’s out this week. That leaves Bateman as the Ravens’ only truly reliable wide receiver. They have other dynamic offensive weapons, but part of the reason they crushed the Steelers last time was because of Flowers’ huge game, putting up five catches for 100 yards.

No Ravens receiver should have a day like that this time. Bateman isn’t Flowers, but he’s still come on nicely for the Ravens this year. If Porter eliminates him as a threat, that could make the Ravens’ offense more one-dimensional. Letting Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson get hot is a recipe for disaster.

QUESTION 3: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST KEY TO THE GAME FOR THE STEELERS?

Josh Carney: Take care of the football. The last time these two teams met, it looked like a Ravens blowout on paper given their 34-17 win. But it certainly didn’t feel like that throughout the game. A Russell Wilson fumble inside the 5-yard line kept Steelers points off the board in a tie game, and a pick-6 from Wilson gave the Ravens a sizable advantage.

This time around, take care of the football. Don’t beat yourselves. If the Steelers can do that, they should find themselves in a tight game once again with the AFC North rival Ravens.

Joe Clark: Force turnovers. It’s how they beat Baltimore the first time the two teams played, and they didn’t take advantage of their opportunities in the second matchup. Winning the turnover battle is one of the biggest keys to winning the game, and Pittsburgh is going to need to create takeaways if they want to pull off the upset in Baltimore.

Ross McCorkle: Clean up the tackling. The Steelers missed 16 tackles the last time these teams played. That isn’t going to get the job done against Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson and company.

Scott Brown: Make Lamar Jackson (figuratively) sweat. It could get real interesting if this is a close game going into the fourth quarter. Does Jackson – notice Mike Tomlin did not refer to him as “Mr. Jackson” during his weekly press conference – get a little tight if his nemesis plays like the team that not too long ago was 10-3?

The Steelers can find out — if they keep the score down and don’t beat themselves. Winning the turnover battle would go a long way toward accomplishing both. And let’s see how accurate Jackson, sans Zay Flowers, is if the Steelers and his past postseason shortcomings put the heat on him.

Troy Montgomery: Be smarter in the red zone on offense. This has been an issue for the Steelers for weeks. Their red-zone offense under Russell Wilson has been pitiful. That was never more apparent than in both their games against the Ravens. The Steelers didn’t find the end zone in the first game, and somehow, the second game was worse.

Wilson was responsible for some ugly turnovers, including a lost fumble near the goal line. That play shifted the momentum in that game with the Steelers never really recovering. They can’t make those kinds of mistakes again. The Steelers need to play smarter.

QUESTION 4: WHAT IS YOUR PREDICTION FOR STEELERS VS. RAVENS?

Josh Carney: Every talking head across the media landscape seems to be predicting a Ravens blowout win. They certainly have their reasons for it with the Steelers losing four straight games to back into the playoffs.

But as seemingly every player has talked about this week in Pittsburgh, it’s a clean slate, and they’re starting over against a familiar opponent. Health is on the Steelers’ side in this one, but it’s hard to have faith in the offense doing enough to win this game. The Ravens pull off a close win. Ravens 17, Steelers 16

Joe Clark: It’s going to be a long offseason for the Steelers after five straight one-and-done playoff appearances. The Ravens are a talented team at home and just beat the Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium, and the Steelers are a team struggling to do much of anything on offense. I think the defense will come to play the way it did in Week 18, but the offensive output just simply won’t be enough. Ravens 24, Steelers 13

Ross McCorkle: I am pretty optimistic at the moment, considering the 10-point betting spread and the 34-17 whooping just a few weeks ago. Last time the Ravens had Zay Flowers. Last time the Steelers didn’t have DeShon Elliott, Donte Jackson, Larry Ogunjobi, or Joey Porter Jr. (for most of the game). Everything I just listed is now the opposite. The final score last time looked way worse than it actually was. The Steelers had multiple opportunities to make that game competitive.

Can the Ravens really reverse course after losing eight of the last 10 to make it two in a row? I’m going to say no. Steelers 21, Ravens 20.

Scott Brown: I really like the Steelers…to cover. The have too much pride not to go down swinging and history says this won’t be a blowout. The Steelers are healthier than the last time they played in Baltimore, but the talent disparity between these two offenses is too much to overlook. And for the Steelers to overcome. Ravens 23, Steelers 16

Troy Montgomery: I don’t have a lot of confidence going into this one. No matter how well the Steelers have played the Ravens, or how much Lamar Jackson has struggled in the playoffs, it’s tough to see the Steelers winning this one. They just haven’t shown enough, especially on offense, to deserve any confidence.

Meanwhile, the Ravens look like one of the NFL’s best teams. They fixed their defense, which had been their Achilles heel. Their offense hasn’t slowed down either. Even without Zay Flowers, I think they’ll easily send the Steelers packing. Ravens 27, Steelers 14.