OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Round three of Ravens versus Steelers is just 5 days away.
It’s the fifth time these two rivals will play within the postseason, however the first time it’s going to be in Baltimore.
Back in Week 11, the Ravens traveled to Pittsburgh and suffered a troublesome 18-16 loss in a recreation the place the Steelers did not rating a single landing.
Baltimore performed nicely defensively, holding the Steelers to 4 for 16 on third downs.
However, it was two Justin Tucker missed kicks and 12 penalties proving to be too expensive for them.
Fast ahead to the rematch in Week 16, the Ravens led your complete recreation, successful 34-17, gaining 418 yards in whole offense.
“We know them, [and] they know us fairly nicely. There’s all the time that little chess recreation happening—Game of Thrones [or] I don’t know, no matter—with them as a result of it’s all the time one thing completely different. There are all the time wrinkles thrown in each week, in order that’s the a part of it that we examine actually onerous,” says Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.
Saturday proves to be the rubber match with the season on the road.
“You most likely have sure issues which can be understood. There’s lots of issues which have form of been ingrained in your information of a staff in division like that who you’ve already performed twice, so your jumping-off level is additional down the street for certain,” says Harbaugh.
Health-wise, the Ravens say Pro Bowl huge receiver Zay Flowers knee harm just isn’t season-ending and is day-to-day.
It’ll take an effort from guys like Rashod Bateman to step up Saturday.
“[Bateman] has all the time been excessive on my checklist and on my charts. I believe he’s an incredible participant, large athlete, large competitor, [and] glorious huge receiver. He brings an incredible talent set to it. He’s been taking part in at a excessive degree all 12 months. He made massive performs for us in that recreation [against Cleveland] this previous week. He was a think about these drives in getting us into scoring place quite a few occasions, so sure, he’s good, however it’s not simply Rashod. I don’t suppose it’s about one man—it’s everyone. We have lots of weapons. We can transfer guys round in numerous methods, scheme these guys up, and so they can all make performs,” says Harbaugh.
Defensively, the staff appears to be like to proceed its excellence on that aspect of the ball. Flipping the script from what they had been earlier within the season.
“You follow your ideas of what you’re making an attempt to do. You attempt to clear up the issues. So a lot of all the things in life is problem-solving, no extra so in this sort of a deal. Football is a multi-faceted recreation. There’s simply so many issues that go into it. There’s lots of scheme issues. There’s lots of personnel issues. There’s lots of character issues. There’s physiology [and] matchups—there’s only a lot that goes into it. There’s day-to-day private lives. There’s psychology, I assume you’d say. So you simply attempt to do the most effective you’ll be able to week to week [and] each day and attempt to enhance,” says Harbaugh.
Saturday’s Wild Card matchup is Saturday at 8 o’clock, and you may watch it proper right here on WMAR.
