Can the Steelers win the pros, cons playoffs battle over Ravens?
The NFL postseason allows teams to look at a clean slate, putting regular season records behind them as they prepare to make a push at a championship. That doesn’t erase the fact that teams must evaluate the pros of their play to that point, as well as the cons.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens on the road Saturday, January 11 (8 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video, NFL+). As the No. 3 seed, the odds favor the Ravens, but during the 2024 NFL regular season, the Steelers split the series, 1-1. Pittsburgh, who is 3-1 against the Ravens in the playoffs, lost the last match to Baltimore during the 2014 wild-card round. In order to be victorious Saturday night, and continue their playoff run, the Steelers will need to find ways to win that pros vs cons battle.
The Steelers defense
The Steelers enter the playoffs in a state of flux. Their once dominant defense has suffered regression in recent weeks while Lamar Jackson, a frontrunner in the 2024 NFL MVP conversation, has been leading a Ravens offense that has found ways to carve-up opponents.
Missed assignments and communication issues that plagued Pittsburgh, especially in the defensive backfield, were corrected to a certain point in their season finale with the Cincinnati Bengals but aren’t as corrected, or on point, as they were before giving up #7.3 points per game in their late-season slide. To beat the Ravens, the defense – who will get some players back from injury – will need to get back to their hard-nosed, stingy ways.
Tied for the league lead with 33 takeaways during the regular season, creating turnovers would be a big way to turn cons into pros for the Steelers. That requires good execution by individuals and rallying force by the team. Players need to get back to fundamentals: good tackling, handling assignments, covering gaps, and better overall awareness.
Jackson is the only NFL quarterback currently active who holds multiple MVP titles who has yet to become a Super Bowl champion. In his four postseason showings, the Ravens quarterback has lost three fumbles and thrown six interceptions. In his losses (four out of six), the Ravens offense has averaged less than 11 points per game.
Snubbed for All-Pro status, Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt have the stage set for not only being on-field veteran leaders in this game but the opportunity to rally their squad to disrupt Jackson on the big stage and pen Derrick Henry in the offensive backfield.
The Steelers offense
Offensively, the Steelers have not had playoff-caliber output in recent weeks. Correcting that begins with Russell Wilson not playing hero, but leader. Wilson has the best experience of all Steelers quarterbacks since Ben Roethlisberger. In 11 regular season starts, Wilson has completed 214-of-336 passes for 2,482 yards (63.7%) for 16 touchdowns to 5 interceptions.
The run and receiving game needs to convert critical downs, extend drives, and make plays. That requires that Wilson’s teammates find a way to once again trust each other and execute the game plan.
George Pickens, who has appeared to struggle lately, could break things open in this game. If Pittsburgh needed maturity before from Pickens, they need him to be a true pro against Baltimore. The average depth of target for the Steelers with Pickens in the game is 7.1 yards; that fell to 6.0 without him.
In order to win the offense battle, the Steelers need others to step into bigger roles to take pressure off of Wilson and Pickens. They will have a full compliment of healthy receivers and tight ends to choose from, but that group needs to be determined to succeed on the field.
Can Pittsburgh win this battle?
The short answer to the question posed is this: yes. Whether they will is a question mark. The current odds seem stacked against them.
The defense should start with shutting down Henry. The Ravens running back had 13 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown, but also lost a fumble in the Steelers’ 18-16 home win. In the road loss, Henry had 24 carries for 162 yards in the regular-season rematch.
“We played as a unit,” linebacker Patrick Queen said this week when asked about the difference between their regular season game outcomes against the Ravens. “I think the second time around we started doing our own thing. That reflected in the score…”
“Now it’s the point of us going out there and playing as a unit, communicating at a high level, playing fast, playing physical, doing the job we are supposed to do.”
The Steelers offense has got to get back to taking what they’re given and turn that to their advantage instead of their undoing. “You can really take the years that we’ve played them and kind of build the game plan from it,” receiver Calvin Austin said this week, but added that what their opponent did previously has to be secondary to what they’ll do in the wild card round.
“Forget about (the past) and just worry about the Ravens that we got coming up. All focus on there… We’re where we are right now and that’s all that matters.”
If the Steelers tap into what gave them the 10 wins this season, they may just put all the pieces together at the right time to win the pros vs cons battle over the Ravens.
