The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens face off in a wild-card matchup on Saturday night, and the two teams are heading in different directions. Baltimore has won their last four games, and they’ve all been decisive victories. Meanwhile, the Steelers are barely treading water. They’ve lost four straight, including a 34-17 drubbing in Maryland.
Given the recent form of the two teams, the sportsbooks aren’t giving Pittsburgh much of a chance as they return to Baltimore. The Steelers are massive underdogs to the Ravens. DraftKings Sportsbook currently gives the Ravens a 9.5-point advantage, while FanDuel has the same line.
Whatever the point spread, these are two heated rivals, meeting in the biggest game of the year for either team. Steelers linebacker and former Raven Patrick Queen now understands each side of the rivalry. He spoke to the media on Wednesday and doesn’t think either side is worried about the point spread.
“Me personally, knowing them [Ravens], they don’t give a damn about that,” Queen said. “Whatever it is, the underdog story, I know that here we don’t give a damn about it either. It’s playoff football. Anything can happen. It’s football at the highest level, the highest competition you could see.”
As the Steelers and their fans are well aware, playoff football is a massive step up from the regular season in terms of intensity. Throughout the roster and the coaching staff, many people in Pittsburgh have been in the playoffs before and understand the atmosphere.
The Steelers have fallen flat in the playoffs in recent years, and the Ravens are admittedly playing much better football currently. With that said, a nearly 10-point spread does feel large. Yes, Baltimore took care of business in their most recent meeting. Still, the Steelers, playing short-handed, kept that game close until the end.
Queen spoke about the familiarity between the two sides before their third meeting of the year.
“Two teams from the same division playing for the third time, it’s gonna be a good game,” Queen said.
Steelers fans sure hope so. They haven’t had much to cheer for recently. Pittsburgh at least had a chance to beat the Cincinnati Bengals at the end of last week’s game, but they were blown out in their three previous losses. Although the Steelers are massive underdogs, neither they nor the Ravens will have that in mind on Saturday night.
