Ravens vs. Steelers: A Critical Playoff Showdown Analysis

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00:00What this game represents to me is so perfect.

00:05If you are the Ravens, and you are the,

00:09if this is finally the year where being the best team

00:13in the regular season, by the way, 12 and five,

00:15three seed, absolutely not the best team

00:16in the regular season, they're not.

00:19But if that's, if it's gonna finally translate,

00:22it translates by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers by margin.

00:27Not squeaking it out with Justin Tucker in a clutch kick,

00:30not Russell Wilson turning it over late,

00:33you dominate this team.

00:35Because this Steelers team is the same team

00:39that made the playoffs, Mason Rudolph,

00:43or the final year of Big Ben, they show up,

00:48they're completely outmatched, they are only here

00:51because Mike Tomlin going 500 is completely undeniable,

00:55and they get absolutely rolled.

00:58But what is challenging for Baltimore

01:01is no opponent has been better at grabbing the Ravens

01:06and saying, get right down here to our level

01:08than the Pittsburgh Steelers, every time without fail.

01:13Not only did Pittsburgh beat this team

01:15in a preposterous victory earlier on this year,

01:18even the 17 point win that went the Ravens way

01:23at one point was I think a seven point game

01:26and Lamar threw an interception

01:28that looked like it was gonna flip

01:30the whole thing on its head.

01:31And then Russ threw a pick six and the rest is history.

01:34That's why I say that, Nani, because either

01:37we're going to find out that this year, to me,

01:40like I know Lamar's had some fine round ones, this is it.

01:44If the Ravens roll here, it is actually going

01:47to look different for Lamar in this postseason.

01:49If this is a four point victory,

01:52it's gonna feel like the same thing as always.

01:54Yeah, if we are setting up the game too,

01:55look at it this way.

01:56This is one of the few times where it'd be basically

01:58a double digit playoff spread and you say,

02:00Donnie, Baltimore won that game.

02:02Yeah, that's what they're supposed to do.

02:03Donnie, the Pittsburgh Steelers won that game.

02:05Yeah, what'd you think?

02:05That game was gonna be a blowout?

02:06I mean, it's the Pittsburgh Steelers

02:07and the Baltimore Ravens.

02:08It has an odd connotation to it.

02:10But here's what I like to bring it up to.

02:11And you're not supposed to think this way.

02:14Their best wide receiver, Joe,

02:15is not gonna play in this game, Zay Flowers.

02:17Gets hurt, you know, banged up knee,

02:18hopefully he's back next week.

02:19You know what I say?

02:20Good, don't throw, like, I'm not saying

02:23you don't throw the football,

02:25but it feels like if I have weapons,

02:26I have to use them, I have to keep this football

02:28on the ground, that's how you can break

02:30the Steelers on defense, as opposed to throwing

02:32the football and putting it in harm's way.

02:34So when I look at this matchup and say,

02:36either way it goes, and we're expecting, obviously,

02:38a Pittsburgh Steelers loss in this game,

02:40which, who knows what's gonna happen in the future,

02:41a quarterback, we can get into that later.

02:43But for me, if you are going to beat this Steelers team,

02:46run the football, Joe, right at that front side.

02:48And I think it's with Derrick Henry

02:50and Lamar Jackson breaking contain.

02:51He did that in the first half against Cleveland,

02:53made a lot of plays outside the pocket with his legs.

02:56Once they built a lead, then they started

02:58throwing the football a little bit more.

03:00I think that's the recipe.

03:01You look at Baltimore's offense right now,

03:03they've won four games, Kev, by an average margin

03:06of victory of 23 points per game, right?

03:08They have the quarterback advantage.

03:09They already beat this team three weeks ago

03:12and dominated them in the second half by 17 points.

03:15And to your point about Russell Wilson

03:17and Pittsburgh right now, they've lost four straight.

03:20They haven't had the quarterback advantage

03:21over the last four games.

03:23They played Jalen Hurts and lost.

03:24They played Lamar, they lost.

03:26They lost to Pat Mahomes and they lost to Joe Burrow.

03:29And in each one of those games,

03:30they try to drag those teams into a lower scoring game

03:34and they couldn't do it.

03:35They're gonna need a monumental effort,

03:36in my opinion, from Russell Wilson

03:39to potentially cover this line or win it out right now.

03:42They might be able to back the word

03:43if they get them into a lower scoring game.

03:45Maybe it's 23-10 and all of a sudden

03:47they tack on a late touchdown and it makes it look good.

03:51But at the end of the day, you have to break tendency

03:54and without throwing the football consistently,

03:57how are they gonna score points?

03:59How are they gonna score?

04:00If George Pickens is getting eight targets

04:02and he has two catches for eight yards

04:05and Friar Muth is your big target coming out

04:07in terms of the tight end, you can't win games like that

04:10against better elite quarterback competition.

04:13So again, I think Baltimore,

04:15they try to run the football early.

04:17If they have success and build a lead,

04:19put the game on Russell Wilson

04:20and he's gonna have to deliver

04:22in order to pull this game out.

04:23I do lean Pittsburgh because it is a divisional game,

04:27but I do feel this game is an under

04:28just because of how inconsistent

04:30Pittsburgh's offense has been.

04:32By the way, real quick on this.

04:33You know, like you handicap a regular season,

04:35you play four or five really good teams

04:36and now finally we get the Carolina Panthers.

04:38They played really good teams down the stretch

04:40and get a really good one in the playoffs.

04:42So there's not anything we can lean back on

04:43when I talked about the 16 and a half points.

04:45Like, oh, they'll get it together today.

04:46Will they?

04:47It's another good team.

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