Prior to December, it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers were possibly in for a special season. Then the Steelers seemingly crashed and burned in the blink of an eye.
Four straight losses to close the regular season, an offense that was creating explosive plays left and right couldn’t get into gear, and a defense that was taking the football away and suffocating teams couldn’t replicate what was working.
Entering Saturday night’s Wild Card matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers are at their lowest point of the season. The spread in the game is pushing double digits as the Steelers are a heavy underdog.
And yet ESPN’s Benjamin Solak can’t quit them. Appearing on The Mina Kimes Show with Lenny on Thursday morning, Solak stated that even with the Steelers playing poorly, he still believes in them a bit.
“I just think with Pittsburgh and Baltimore knowing each other so well, that nine and a half [spread] is just too big. I understand how badly the Steelers have played over the last month, but this is the Steelers we’re talking about,” Solak said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “It’s exactly when they’re in the mud that they rise back up. You can’t bury what came from the dirt.
“Like, this feels like a spot for them. And so I think the Ravens win, but I very much expect the Steelers to cover in this game.”
With it being the third meeting in nine weeks between the two teams, and it being another AFC North matchup, there is a great deal of familiarity there, which bodes well for the Steelers.
They know the Ravens’ strengths and weaknesses, and while the Week 16 matchup looked like a blowout with a final score of 34-17, the game was much closer than that. If not for two Russell Wilson turnovers — one a fumble inside the Ravens’ 5-yard line and one a pick-6 — things might have gone differently in that game.
Add that the Steelers are pretty healthy ahead of Saturday and will have WR George Pickens and S DeShon Elliott in this matchup while the Ravens will likely be without WR Zay Flowers, and things are looking positive for the Black and Gold.
“I still think that we underestimated the impact that some of the injuries had over the course of December over some of their losses. Now they’re getting George Pickens back and they’re getting DeShon Elliott back and Joey Porter Jr’s back and Larry Ogunjobi’s back,” Solak added regarding the Steelers. “I think that kind of rounds out the team a little bit of a better form. They’re playing a Ravens team they know very, very well.
“As everybody knows, when Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh play, the underdog usually covers. I think this is gonna be a very close game.”
Even with the Steelers’ struggles over the last month, this playoff game should be closer than many anticipate. Granted, that assumes the Steelers figure out their issues on both sides of the football and correct them. But it’s Steelers-Ravens, and it’s a playoff game.
It should be close and come down to who can make the key plays in the fourth quarter once again.
