Given all the injuries Pittsburgh has endured, it’s a wonder this team is still in contention for a playoff spot. Kudos to the coaching staff and players. But the game Steelers don’t have enough in the tank to deal with the Ravens–even with many Baltimore front-liners sitting out the game.
WHAT: Week 17, Game 16 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
WHEN: 4:25 p.m. (ET); Sunday, December 29
WHERE: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore (71,008)
RECORDS: Steelers, 8-7: Ravens 13-2
LIFETIME SERIES (regular season): Steelers lead, 25-22, and have won four of the last six overall meetings. In Baltimore, the Ravens lead, 12-11, but the Steelers have won in each of their previous two visits to Baltimore.
TV: Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts, booth, and Evan Washburn, sidelines
REFEREE: Bill Vinovich
About the Steelers
—Until last week, the Steelers held the sixth and final AFC playoff spot, the second wild-card position, but fell out of the race with last week’s road loss to the New York Jets. The Steelers can reclaim the spot with a win and a Tennessee loss in Houston, but if the Steelers, Titans and Oakland Raiders all end up tied, the Raiders get the spot via the strength of victory tiebreaker. This game was flexed to a later start time to maximize the drama and to ensure no team has the advantage of knowing about an earlier result.
—Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are the opponents the Ravens have played more than any other in Baltimore’s 24-season history. This Sunday’s game will mark the 48th regular-season game and the 52nd-lifetime meeting between the teams (including postseason); the Ravens have also played Cincinnati 48 times and Cleveland on 42 occasions.
—Since the AFC North was formed after the 2002 realignment, the Steelers have the most division titles with eight, the most recent in 2017. But with Baltimore having won the last two, its total is now six. Cincinnati has four AFC North titles, the last coming in 2015, and Cleveland hasn’t won a division title of any kind since the old AFC Central in 1989.
—When the Baltimore Colts were part of the NFL, they met the Steelers 11 times (including postseason). Pittsburgh won eight, including a 4-2 record in Baltimore and a 4-1 mark in Pittsburgh.
—Historically, the Steelers franchise has had a contrasting dual identity. From 1933-1971, Pittsburgh had only eight winning seasons out of its first 39 with only one playoff appearance. Since then, it has added 30 playoff appearances (the total of 31 is the league’s third-most, one of only four teams with 30 or more), with 23 division crowns, the league’s third-most
—Pittsburgh’s eight Super Bowl appearances are tied for the second-most all-time with Dallas and Denver, and three behind record-holder New England. The Steelers’ six Super Bowl championships are tied with New England for the most and one better than the five each won by Dallas and San Francisco. Pittsburgh has made 16 appearances in the conference title game, an AFC record, and tied with Dallas for third-most all-time behind the New York Giants (19) and Green Bay (17).
—With the return match slated for Baltimore on the final regular-season Sunday (Week 17), this Sunday’s game marks the third time in the last five years that the return game in this yearly intradivisional home-and-home series will be played in Charm City. It also means there will be no repeat of last year’s early wrapup of one of the most-anticipated rivalries leaguewide. Last year, the two teams were done in October, on the fifth-earliest date that the two-game season series ended, having concluded as early as Oct. 18 (2000) in the past.
—A total of 17 of the teams’ 47 regular-season meetings have been shown in prime time. The Ravens have registered three two-game season sweeps of Pittsburgh (’06, ’11, ’15), while the Steelers have five sweeps (’97, ’98, ’02, ’08, ‘17). There have been 15 splits (including last year, when each team won on the other’s home field), and Pittsburgh has won three of four postseason meetings, including the 2008 AFC Championship Game at home. Had the Ravens won that game, they would have played in Super Bowl 43 in Tampa, site of the team’s Super Bowl 35 win (next year’s title game, Super Bowl 55, will be in Tampa).
—The history of this rivalry has been enriched by the number of close games that have resulted. The Ravens and Steelers have played to one-score margins in 18 of their last 23 regular-season meetings, dating back to December 2007. Also, 14 of the last 23 regular-season meetings between these two teams have been decided by three or fewer points–the most by any pair of teams, outdistancing Dallas-Washington and San Francisco-St. Louis/Los Angeles (eight each). In the last 28 meetings before this season, the Ravens and Steelers have 14 wins each, with Baltimore holding a slim 15-point edge (588-573).
—Even though it makes for a high-profile matchup, this is not the first time Baltimore and Pittsburgh will have closed the regular season against each other. But, surprisingly, this is the first time this has happened since the league-mandated in 2010 that all Week 17 games be played within divisions, the better to create playoff-spot drama. Pittsburgh visited Baltimore to close the 2007 season, and the Ravens won to end a nine-game losing streak, but fired head coach Brian Billick the next day.These teams ended the 2002 and 2003 seasons against each other, with Pittsburgh taking the first of those two at home and the Ravens winning the latter, also at home.
—With one regular-season game remaining, the Steelers are ranked 30th (third-worst) in total offense (26th rushing at 90.4 yards per game, 31st passing, tied for 25th scoring at 18.8 points per game). The Steelers have the league’s seventh-worst third-down percentage (33.9) and is ranked at the very bottom in red-zone touchdown percentage (34.2). Defensively, Pittsburgh is ranked fourth overall (11th vs. rush, fifth vs. pass, fourth scoring, allowing 18.3 points per game). Pittsburgh is allowing third-down conversions at a 35.8 percent pace, the league’s seventh-best, and in the red zone, it is allowing touchdowns just 51.2 percent of the time, ninth-best in the league.
—Head coach Mike Tomlin, now in his 13th season at the helm but still relatively young at 47, is the 16th head coach in Steelers’ franchise history. But he’s but only the third since 1969, following former Baltimore Colts assistant Chuck Noll and Pittsburgh native Bill Cowher. Tomlin has a regular-season record of 133-73-1 (.645), the second-best winning percentage among active coaches (Bill Belichick), but a rather mediocre playoff mark of 8-7. He reached the playoffs four times in his first five seasons (and in eight of his 12 years overall) and became the youngest head coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl (36) when his team beat Arizona in Super Bowl 43 in Tampa. After several collegiate coaching stops, Tomlin coached defensive backs in the NFL at Cincinnati and Tampa Bay before becoming Minnesota’s defensive coordinator, then moving on to Pittsburgh after Cowher retired.
Prediction
The Steelers have been devastated by injuries, and not just to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Center Maurkice Pounce, RB James Conner, DE Stephon Tuitt, and several other front-liners likely won’t be available for the regular-season finale.
The stakes are high, too. The Steelers need to win this game if they are to have any chance of salvaging a playoff berth. And they’ll try to win it with their fourth-string QB.
All that said, it’s a wonder that Pittsburgh is contending at all. Give the coaching staff and team credit. 2019 will have to be remembered that way — because the Steelers don’t have enough in the tank to deal with a Ravens team that is deeper, more talented, and hungrier–even with many front-liners sitting out the game in prep for a playoff run.
Baltimore 27, Pittsburgh 10
