A Lean And Look As Ravens And Steelers Play For Division

Ravens vs. Steelers, 8:20 ET

When you start the NFL season and look toward the end of it, you'll typically see some important divisional games this weekend. They all say TBD for the time or maybe FLEX. I give a lot of grief to the schedule makers, but I have to hand it to them about the way they handle the end of the season. This type of game is exactly what they want. We get the Ravens and Steelers playing on Sunday Night Football to determine which team goes to the playoffs, and which one goes home. 

One of the biggest disappointments of the year, in my opinion, is the Ravens. There were Super Bowl expectations from Baltimore this year, and the results were them potentially missing the playoffs and ending the year under .500. You can't really blame all of this on a Lamar Jackson injury. He was hurt for different stretches of the year - and he is playing in this game - but this mostly falls on a defense that couldn't stop a pee-wee football team. Yes, Baltimore had a tough schedule, but as the year went on, this schedule actually looks a lot less difficult. Of the teams they faced this year, only five or six teams are playoff teams, and that includes the Steelers. They should've won week 1, but couldn't stop the Bills. They were embarrassed in four straight games before their Bye Week, and then ran off five straight wins afterwards. That made everyone think that the team might be "back." Well, those wins were against the Bears, Dolphins, Vikings, Browns, and Jets. The Bears are a playoff team, but I'm not fully convinced they are a great team either. Since then, they are 2-3 losing to the Bengals, Steelers, and Patriots. They did beat Green Bay last week with ease, but that was mostly due to the Packers being injured (Jackson didn't play either, so a bit of credit to the Ravens' backup as well). Now they need to beat the Steelers in order to get into the playoffs.

(Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

The Steelers aren't quite a disappointment, but they should've already had this division wrapped up. Looking at this division, the Browns are a disaster franchise that only has one thing going for them. The Bengals came into the year with a suspect defense, and then Joe Burrow went down with another injury. The Ravens had a terrible defense, and Jackson has missed a few games this season as well. The division was essentially handed to them on a platter and instead of taking it, they look like they are doing everything they can do lose it. I like Mike Tomlin quite a bit, and he did secure another winning season (or non-losing, however you want to look at it). Aaron Rodgers made it through the entire season without missing too many games. Those are good moments, but the rest of the year has been a hodgepodge of highs and lows. Week 2, they lost to Seattle, partially because they didn't know the new rules. Then they beat a really good Patriots team the next week. They lost in a shootout to Joe Flacco in Week 7, but beat them in Week 11 with Mason Rudolph under center. 

There really isn't any true rhyme or reason for either of these teams. They are deeply flawed, but any given Sunday, they could win a game. Last week the Browns defense prevented them from winning (or the NFL did so this game would matter, however you like your conspiracies). You could make a small case that the Ravens were the better team when they played the first time. They lost the turnover battle, but had 100 more yards than the Steelers, for example. The Steelers are at home, Tomlin seems to love these situations where he is an underdog, especially at home. I haven't seen enough from the Ravens to trust that this defense has improved. I lean to the Steelers +3.5. I am officially playing over 40.5. I don't think either defense will be capable to stop their opponent and I think both teams would rather go down with their quarterback than play conservatively. 

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