Pittsburgh (10-7) at Baltimore (12-5)
Saturday, 8 p.m. EST, Prime Video.
BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 10.
Against the spread: Steelers 11-6, Ravens 10-6-1.
Series record: Steelers lead 36-26.
Last meeting: Ravens beat Steelers 34-17 in Baltimore on Dec. 21, 2024.
Last week: Steelers lost to Bengals 19-17; Ravens beat Browns 35-10.
Steelers offense: overall (23), rush (11), pass (27), scoring (16).
Steelers defense: overall (12), rush (6), pass (25), scoring (8).
Ravens offense: overall (1), rush (1), pass (7), scoring (3).
Ravens defense: overall (10), rush (1), pass (31), scoring (9).
Turnover differential: Steelers plus-16; Ravens plus-6.
Steelers player to watch
WR George Pickens. The talented but mercurial Pickens missed Pittsburgh's loss in Baltimore last month with a hamstring injury. He's been ineffective in his return and struggled against Cincinnati in Week 18, dropping three passes and finishing with one reception for zero yards. The Steelers' best chance to break out of an offensive funk that's accompanied their four-game losing streak is having Pickens get engaged in the game early. Pickens has 19 receptions for 326 yards and a touchdown in five games against Baltimore, four of them victories.
Ravens player to watch
QB Lamar Jackson. The two-time MVP might be as good as ever after becoming the first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 900 yards in a season. He's passed basically every test except leading his team on an extended postseason run. There are plenty of reasons to believe he'll do so eventually, but any signs of shakiness could set off alarms in the minds of the home fans.
Key matchup
Baltimore RB Derrick Henry vs. LB Patrick Queen and the Pittsburgh defensive front. The easiest way to take some pressure off Jackson is to run the ball effectively with Henry. The star running back fumbled early in the November meeting at Pittsburgh, and the Ravens never really got control of that game, losing 18-16. In the rematch last month, Henry ran for 162 yards and Baltimore won by 17.
Key injuries
Steelers: Pittsburgh is pretty healthy heading into its 18th game of the season. CB Donte Jackson (back) could return after sitting out last week against Cincinnati. ... DT Cam Heyward is expected to play after missing practice early in the week while recovering from an illness.
Ravens: WR Zay Flowers injured a knee in the regular-season finale and will not play Saturday.
Series notes
The Ravens and Steelers have met four times in the postseason, all of them in Pittsburgh. The Steelers went 3-1 in those games. This is their first postseason meeting in a decade after it happened three times in seven seasons. ... Pittsburgh has won eight of the past 10 games in the series. ... Mike Tomlin of the Steelers (18 years) and John Harbaugh of the Ravens (17) are the league's two longest-tenured coaches.
Stats and stuff
The Steelers enter the playoffs on a cold streak in more ways than one. Pittsburgh's four-game skid is tied for the second longest in Tomlin's tenure. The Steelers have also lost their past five postseason games going back to the 2016 AFC title game. The most recent team to end the season on a four-game skid and win a playoff game was the 1986 New York Jets. They dropped their final five games before beating Kansas City in the wild-card round. ... Pittsburgh's eight-year playoff victory drought is the franchise's longest since Franco Harris made the “Immaculate Reception” in the divisional round in 1972 to earn the club's first postseason win. ... Pittsburgh is 10-2 all time when it plays an opponent for a third time in a season. ... The Steelers' swoon has been a collective failure. The offense is averaging just 14.3 points and 258 yards during the slide, while the defense is giving up 27.3 points and 380.5 yards. ... Pittsburgh QB Russell Wilson is 9-7 in the playoffs in his career, but just 3-5 since the Seattle Seahawks lost to New England in the Super Bowl following the 2014 season. ... Pittsburgh quarterbacks making their first playoff appearance with the team are 7-3. ... Steelers LB T.J. Watt finished the season with 11 1/2 sacks, the lowest in a year not interrupted by injury since he was a rookie in 2017. Watt, who has yet to win a playoff game in his potentially Hall of Fame career, didn't have a sack in any of Pittsburgh's past three games. ... Heyward is coming off one of his best seasons. The 35-year-old made the Pro Bowl for a seventh time and finished with 8 1/2 sacks and batted down 11 passes. ... Pittsburgh ranked second in the league in turnover differential but is minus-1 during its current losing streak. ... While the Steelers offense has improved in 2024, it still has trouble in the red zone. Pittsburgh's red zone touchdown rate this season dropped from 25th to 29th at 48.2%. Chris Boswell’s 41 field goals were the second highest in a single season in NFL history behind the 44 David Akers made for San Francisco in 2011. ... The Ravens went 7-3 during the regular season against teams that made the playoffs. They faced every team in the AFC postseason field. ... Baltimore is the first team to pass for at least 4,000 yards and rush for at least 3,000 in a season. ... From Weeks 11-18, Baltimore allowed NFL lows in yards per game (261.7), net yards passing per game (171.6), yards per play (4.4) and points per game (15.4). ... The Ravens averaged 6.85 yards per play, the third-highest mark in NFL history behind the 2000 Rams and 1954 Rams. Baltimore set a record with 5.76 yards per rushing attempt. ... The Ravens are 4-5 in home playoff games. In their two Super Bowl-winning seasons of 2000 and 2012, they played a total of only one home postseason game. ... Baltimore is 17-2 in the playoffs with a positive or even turnover margin. The Ravens are 0-11 with a negative turnover margin. ... Baltimore has won 17 postseason games since 2000, second in the league behind New England (30). ... Harbaugh is one of only five coaches to lead his team to at least 12 playoff berths in the first 17 seasons of a career. The others were Pete Carroll, Bud Grant, Mike Holmgren and Mike McCarthy. ... Baltimore's Mark Andrews had 11 TD catches this season, the most in the league among TEs. ... The Ravens had 10 TD drives of at least 90 yards, the most by a team since at least 2000.
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