Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers NFL Preview and Odds
The Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers has become one of football's best rivalries. The two have been meeting in recent seasons with much at stake. Sometimes it is playoff positioning at stake, and sometimes it's a spot in the Super Bowl. Since both of these teams play a rock-em sock-em style of football, it is normally a close contest, highlighted by a hard hitting on defense.
History
The Steelers lead the all time series 21-14 including a 3-0 record in the playoffs. The Ravens have won the last two meetings. Baltimore comes into this game with a 7-2 record in first place in the AFC North while the Steelers are one game back at 6-3. Baltimore has wins over New England and a bunch of sub .500 teams They lost to Philadelphia and to Houston. Pittsburgh has beaten the New York Giants and a bunch of sub .500 teams. Their losses are to Denver, Oakland, and Tennessee.
So on paper, this looks like a very close match-up. And it may be. But there is one curveball thrown into the mix. Last week, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went down with a injury. He will not play on Sunday. Starting for the Steelers will be Byron Leftwich, who hasn't started a game since the 2009 season. That could be a problem. If the Steelers have to rely on the ground game, their leading rusher is Jonathan Dwyer with 355 yards. That doesn't give Steeler fans a warm, fuzzy feeling going into this game.
The ground game of the Ravens has been much better, led by Ray Rice who has nearly 700 yards so far this year. Rice is one of the league's premier backs. Advantage Ravens. In the passing game, Joe Flacco has 2331 yards passing with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Those are not eye popping numbers, but they are pretty good numbers by any measure. Advantage Ravens.
On defense, the Ravens are missing Ray Lewis. He is the heart and soul of this team and without him, they just aren't as intimidating. The Steelers defense is as tough as always. Advantage Steelers.
Our Pick
Pinnacle has the Ravens -3.5 1.980 or 1,549. The Steelers are +3.5 1.943 or 2.640. Over/Under is 40. We like the under in this one. With Leftwich at quarterback, we are also going to go with the Ravens -3.5.
It's a shame Roethlisberger cannot go this week. Hopefully he will heal quickly because these two get together again in two weeks. It will be interesting to see what the line will be if Big Ben plays in that one.
But this week's game will still be worth watching because when these two get together it is going to be a heck of a football game between two teams that do not like each other much. It does not get much better than that.
