The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens will match up for the 61st time on Nov. 17th. This game is probably the most significant game between the two teams in quite a long time. Pittsburgh enters at 7-2 while Baltimore is 7-3 and the winner takes control of the AFC North for the foreseeable future. The Ravens enter this game mostly healthy, as Kyle Hamilton and Isaiah Likely were both confirmed to be ready to go. Pittsburgh is a bit more banged up.
Alex Highsmith is out with an ankle injury and there is a questionable tag on Steelers running back, Jaylen Warren. The good news for the Steelers is that they are getting back Nick Herbig just in time. Regardless of who’s on the field, Pittsburgh and Baltimore are guaranteed to play a physical game on Sunday. That’s what these games have always been about. There are three additional factors at play in deciding the outcome of this game outside of pure physicality.
Baltimore’s Rushing Attack
Ever since Lamar Jackson arrived in Baltimore, the Ravens have established a run-first identity, and that is still applicable in 2024. The Ravens have the league’s most prolific offense in general, but they specialize in running the football. Derrick Henry has shown what this Ravens offense under Lamar Jackson can look like fully unlocked. With Henry in the backfield, this makes it that much more difficult to stop the Ravens’ rushing attack, which Pittsburgh already has had mixed results against.
In their four matchups against Lamar, the Steelers have surrendered an average of 158.8 yards per game on the ground. Admittedly, that statistic is a little inflated by their matchup in 2020 where the Ravens ran for 265 yards, but the point still stands. Pittsburgh hasn’t been great at stopping the Ravens’ rushing attack as a whole. That is partially by design, however.
Pittsburgh’s defensive philosophy against Lamar Jackson in the run game has been to always make sure there is a defender in his vicinity whether he has the ball or not. This strategy has worked well in their last two games against Lamar where they limited him to only 14 rushing attempts in those two games. Granted, Lamar still ran well when he did run the ball, but Pittsburgh didn’t give him many opportunities to run in the first place. The downside of this approach is that it leaves the Steelers vulnerable to explosive runs up the middle of the field, and that is where having Derrick Henry comes into play.
If Pittsburgh can’t consistently win versus Baltimore’s interior defensive line, then they are screwed, there’s no two ways about it. The good news for the Steelers is that this iteration of their team contains their strongest defensive line unit since facing Lamar Jackson. Cameron Heyward is still playing at an all-pro level at the age of 35. Larry Ogunjobi has been playing some really good football over the last two seasons in Pittsburgh. And the Steelers also have a stud in young nose tackle, Keanu Benton.
Benton hasn’t stuffed the stat sheet, but the Steelers are nearly unstoppable against the run when he’s on the field at nose tackle. It also doesn’t hurt to have T.J. Watt setting the edge, making it almost impossible to run directly at him. If there is any team with the personnel to slow down Baltimore’s rushing attack, it’s Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s Passing Attack
Ever since Russell Wilson became the starter, the Pittsburgh Steelers have transformed their passing game from a methodical dink-and-dunk offense, into a deep ball frenzy. Russell Wilson is third in the NFL in yards per attempt only trailing Brock Purdy and Lamar Jackson, and a lot of that has come from Wilson’s gifts as a passer. He’s always been lauded for his “moonball” with the way he can perfectly place it way down the field. The Steelers haven’t always been efficient under Russell Wilson. He went just 14/28 on passes last week. But the Steelers sure have been explosive under Russ, which is something they can’t say they’ve been in a very long time.
Thankfully for them, they are facing off against a defense that has been awful at defending the pass in the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore is dead last in almost every major pass defense category, and that’s despite having established talent in the secondary like Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey. Some of the blame can be placed on Brandon Stephens, who has just been awful this year for the Ravens, surrendering three touchdowns on the season so far with a passer rating allowed of 112.4. Another piece of the blame can be thrown at the feet of the Ravens’ pass rush.
While they do have 31 sacks on the season through ten games, they haven’t been particularly efficient in rushing the passer, ranking just 18th in pressure percentage. A reason for their sack totals is how many opportunities they get to rush the passer, which ties into their run defense. The Ravens have the best run defense in the league, leading in almost all major categories. Nnamdi Madubuike and Travis Jones have been spectacular at dominating the line of scrimmage week after week, and if they can force a team that wants to run the football consistently like the Steelers into a more one-dimensional offense, it could swing the game in their favor.
Lamar Jackson
Cam Newton said yesterday that Lamar Jackson is the most important player in deciding this game, and he is certainly right. Much has been made about Lamar Jackson’s struggles against the Steelers’ defense over this past week and rightfully so. When dropping back to pass, the Ravens have been thoroughly dominated by this Steelers defense in the games that Lamar has played, that is just an abject fact. Lamar’s passer rating is below 70 against Pittsburgh in his career and he’s been sacked 20 times in four starts against them.
No matter what way you slice it, he’s struggled against them. That’s not to say it’s all his fault that he’s struggled. Arguably the biggest reason for Lamar’s struggles against Pittsburgh has been due to the Ravens’ inability to contain the Steelers pass rush. T.J. Watt in particular has dominated in his matchups against the Ravens, sacking Lamar 7.5 times in those games. It’s safe to say the Ravens will dedicate most of their resources to making sure that Watt doesn’t wreck the game, which leaves it up to Pittsburgh’s other defensive lineman to get home on Lamar. The key matchup is going to be Steelers edge rusher Nick Herbig vs Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley.
Ronnie Stanley is in the midst of his best season for the Ravens since 2019, mainly because this is one of the few seasons he’s been healthy since that year. However, Stanley has some demons to conquer from the last time he played in Pittsburgh. Alex Highsmith got the better of him that day, capping the game off with a strip sack of Lamar Jackson. Now going up against a lighting quick edge in Nick Herbig, Stanley has to consistently win this matchup for Baltimore’s passing attack to be successful.
The Ravens have the best receiving weapons of Lamar’s career at his disposal and it’s not like Pittsburgh’s defense is the most complicated defense to figure out. They may throw a curveball every once in a while, but more often than not, they’ll play cover three and rush four. It’s up to this Ravens offensive line to be able to handle that, and if they don’t, then they can expect their passing game to struggle immensely.
Final Thoughts
Games between the Ravens and Steelers always come down to physicality and discipline, and that will be on full display tomorrow. Whichever team is better prepared to exploit the other’s weaknesses and win the line of scrimmage will win this game. Either way, this iteration of the best rivalry in football currently should be an all-out war on the field.
