Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Predicting the Final Score
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
In arguably the most anticipated matchup of NFL wild-card weekend, the Baltimore Ravens will head to Heinz Field to take on their rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night. With these teams splitting their regular-season contests in 2014, Saturday’s playoff game makes for an extremely enticing one.
Baltimore sneaked into the postseason by defeating the Cleveland Browns in Week 17, combined with getting some help from the Kansas City Chiefs. Now that they are in, the Ravens easily have the pieces to make a run similar to the one they made two seasons ago.
Joe Flacco was unstoppable during the 2013 postseason, throwing for 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions, while compiling a 117.2 passer rating in four games. There is no reason to believe that he cannot duplicate that performance.
With weapons such as Justin Forsett, Torrey Smith and Steve Smith Sr. at Flacco’s disposal, Baltimore is in nice position to come out victorious.
Unfortunately, they will have to face a tough Steelers team on the road.
Pittsburgh heads into this game clicking on all cylinders, as they managed to steal the AFC North division title. However, with tailback Le’Veon Bell unlikely to play with a knee injury, the rest of Pittsburgh’s playmakers will have to step up.
That starts with Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger has two Super Bowls on his resume, and this season, he has arguably the best supporting cast he has ever had. Antonio Brown is one of the best wide receivers in the league, and with Bell likely out, Pittsburgh’s signal-caller will have to use Brown and the entire receiving corps on Saturday night. If the ball is able to be spread around, the Steelers will have a good chance to pull this one out.
Final prediction: the Ravens have now made the postseason in six of the past seven seasons, and during the previous five, they have won at least one game. I like for that trend to continue. Ravens win 27-24.
Max Zelenko is a Philadelphia Eagles/NFL writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on twitter @maxzelenko, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
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