Follow the match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens live on RDS and on RDS.ca from 8 p.m.
PREMATCH
A duel at the top of the AFC North division.
The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens crossed swords in the playoffs was in 2008. John Harbaugh was in his first season in Baltimore Mike Tomlin was in his second campaign with the Steelers.
It was Tomlin who had the upper hand and he subsequently led his team to the Super Bowl title.
Much has changed since then.
The Ravens finished the season with a 12-5 record and were crowned division champions, but that doesn’t mean the Steelers don’t have reason to believe in their chances.
The Steelers are one of the teams that handed the Ravens a loss this season, by a score of 18-16 in November. But since then, the Ravens have won five of their last six games, including a 34-17 victory against the same Steelers.
The opposite happened in Pittsburgh, as the Steelers had a difficult end to the season with four losses in a row.
Last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers offense was neutral and receiver George Pickens finished the game with 0 yards.
Now would be a good time to get going again, especially since the Ravens defense has been one of the worst in the NFL against the pass this season, allowing nearly 4,500 yards and 27 touchdowns on the air.
Offensively, however, the Ravens have the ammunition to hurt the Steelers. Lamar Jackson is in the discussion for the MVP title. He threw for more than 4,000 yards, added 915 yards on the ground, and totaled 45 touchdowns against four interceptions. What a season!
And the ground game is among the most terrifying with Derrick Henry alongside Jackson. The latter had another thunderous season with almost 2,000 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns.
