5 questions with the enemy, feat. Baltimore Beatdown

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Feat. Baltimore Beatdown’s Kyle Phoenix.

It’s a massive AFC North matchup on Sunday as the 7-2 Pittsburgh Steelers take on the 7-3 Baltimore Ravens. Earlier this week, I spoke with Kyle Phoenix of Baltimore Beatdown to preview the matchup.

You can read my questions and his answers below:

The Steelers have had a lot of success against the Ravens in recent years, especially when it comes to containing Lamar Jackson. However, the Ravens offense this year has been a special kind of dominant. How do you think the Steelers defense will match up against Baltimore?

The Ravens have looked capable of beating the Steelers for years now but can never put it all together against Pittsburgh. It’s befuddling to see a team have the talent and the plays and execution, but never all three for 60 minutes against them. Take last year for instance, the Ravens’ pass-catchers completely failed the team in that game. Jackson diced up the Steelers’ secondary but innumerable drops cost them.

This all culminates in me waiting for them to prove it. They are more than capable of handling their business against the Steelers. Not as a discredit to the Steelers, they’re talented and proved it yet again this season, but the Ravens’ offense is on a historic pace with the likes of The Greatest Show on Turf Rams, but until they kick down the door in Pittsburgh, I’m waiting for them to handle their business.

The Baltimore defense is quite the dichotomy this year: best against the run and worst against the pass. How do you think the Steelers offense matches up against the Ravens defense?

The Ravens’ strengths this season have been shutting down the run game. They’re allowing a league low 73 yards per game on the ground. I think that’s a bit of a mirage, as teams are so frequently behind them they are passing to catch up, but also because the pass offense is so porous they figure why go at the teeth of the defense when they can carve them up downfield?

This will be an entertaining one as the Steelers’ offensive strength has been the ground game (ranked No. 8, 138.3 YPG), while the Steelers’ 26th ranked pass offense goes against the No. 32 ranked pass defense. Strength vs. strength and weakness vs. weakness.

Don’t be so quick to point out the change of Russell Wilson and think I’m fooled by the mirage, though. I’m not blind to the pass offense numbers of Pittsburgh being weighed down from when Justin Fields was the starting quarterback. With Wilson at the helm over their last three games, the Steelers have averaged 230.3 passing yards per game. If that was their full-season average, they’d be ranked No. 11 this season. He’ll be attacking them quite frequently and the Ravens have their hands full.

Who are some under-the-radar Baltimore players who could play a role in Sunday’s game?

Defensive tackle Travis Jones is one to watch out for. He’s commanding double teams so frequently due to his combination of strength, speed and size that it’s allowing more one-on-one matchups for Nnamdi Madubuike. There’s a reason Madubuike had three sacks last week and it was due to Jones being healthy. The Ravens lost nose tackle Michael Pierce and Jones was injured the past couple games, which slowed the Ravens’ pass rush. Now that he’s back, he’s doing the grinding, ugly work that AFC North teams recognize is valuable without being noticed on the stat sheet.

Offensively, the Ravens are led by their stars. You all know Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews. But a player that while I don’t necessarily think is under the radar, he has been overshadowed by the bigger names, is Rashod Bateman.

This season, Bateman has been more incorporated in the offense and has made quite an impact. He’s 15 yards from breaking his single-season receiving yards record (515), and he has already doubled his touchdown total to eight career touchdowns this season with four in 2024. He’s a chain-mover and becoming a greater threat for the offense.

A somewhat polarizing former Steeler was traded to the Ravens just two weeks ago in Diontae Johnson. Was the trade worth it? Will Johnson play a role in Sunday’s game?

Johnson hasn’t been much of an impact thus far but to lay high expectations on him to make an immediate impact is unfair. The Ravens are a well-oiled machine and Johnson was an addition for depth, not to supplant Flowers or Bateman at WR1 or WR2. I think he’ll get more involved in this game but I’m unsure how impactful he’ll play in this contest.

The Ravens are currently 3-point favorites heading into Sunday’s matchup. How do you see the game playing out, and why?

It just feels like one of these games the Ravens will kick down the door and break this struggling curse against the Steelers. Will it be this week? I feel like it. But, I felt like that last year until I saw drop after drop. But with Jackson playing at the level he is right now coupled with Henry and the entire offense, it feels like this is the game where each team finds their pecking order.