Steelers at Ravens Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up

Steelers at Ravens Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up | Pittsburgh Steelers

[Music] Well, it almost seems like football fate. It is December. It is the AFC North matchup between the Steelers and the Ravens. And first place is on the line. It feels like that’s the way it should be. Not the way maybe we were hoping it was going to be as we welcome you to the matchup presented by Shell Polymers alongside Missy Matthews and Matt Williamson. I’m Rob King. Stew has had a lead in division. Of course, we know that that slipped away. They even had a chance to reclaim first this past Sunday. That didn’t happen. They’ve lost five of seven. Ravens have lost their last game. This feels like one of those prototypical throw the records out the windows. Let’s get on with the rivalry kind of games. Yeah, I think out of 63 meetings, 40 of them have been onepossession games between these two teams. Not that that probably surprises anybody. It’s always a weird lowscoring game. Uh, typically that’s what we’re used to. And it feels like that’s probably what it will be again on Sunday. Neither team comes in playing great football, Matt. I don’t think. But barring a tie, one of these teams will come out with sole possession of first place in the AFC North. Yeah. and then they’ll play again and probably have this very similar conversation as we sit here in a few weeks and as Missy alluded to, these games always seem to kind of be very similar carbon copies of one another. Okay, so let’s get to our keys. Uh, of course, this is the matchup presented by Shell Polymer. So, what are the matchups? Well, uh, for you it’s protect the football, Missy. Like we always talk about the turnover culture, but that is part of the turnover culture. Not turning it over is part of it. and they’ve been very effective when they haven’t turned the ball over. Yeah, since last season, the Steelers are eight and0 when not committing a turnover. Um, taking care of the football, it seems like football 101, but sometimes harder uh, you know, easier said than done. And I think for the Steelers, it’s extremely important, especially now the time of possession, of course, against the Bills, very skewed in the wrong way. and needing the offense to get into a rhythm. Um something that they need to do and I think it’s also leading to losing the lead. Uh they’ve had in the six games that they’ve lost. And oh yeah, by the way, Baltimore built just like the Steelers, they also like, you know, their turnover culture. They’ve had one or more takeaway in seven straight games. That’s only you know, second longest streak behind the Colts, which we’ve seen their defense and know what they like to do. So for Aaron Rogers and company, take care of the football and try to get those points. One big way to help that, Matt, would be your key, which is run the ball. I feel like we say this every week. I think we’ve pretty much said it every week. And coming off that game against Chicago, going against a team that doesn’t defend the run very well in the Bills, of course, hindered by the fact you played the entire game with Aaron Rogers out of the shotgun, not under center. But getting back to running the football would help you protect it, protect the lead, help your defense. So many benefits for running the ball. Yes. And couple things that you guys have both mentioned is the difference between shotgun verse under center. Sealers numbers running the football are much better under center. I don’t know if we’ll be able to see that or not in this game, but as Missy mentioned, time of possession was really bad against the against the Bills. I mean, you don’t see it to that degree all that often, but now the Steelers are last in the league in time of possession, and the opponents are just running way too many more plays. and it shows up in the defense in the fourth quarter. And I think the Steelers have a pretty good running game. I just think they need to stick with it and be more voluminous with it. Okay. I agree. I think Missy, you agree as well. And and so now we haven’t turned it over. We’ve run the football, but eventually you’re going to have to throw it. And that leads me to my key, which is to protect Aaron Rogers, who look, he just turned 42 this week, you know, and the Ravens are not a great pass rushing team. This is not the Ravens we’re used to seeing. the first uh eight games of the year they only had 11 sacks. So, they made a move. Um they’ve gotten some other guys back. It’s been better lately, eight in the last four games. That’s still not a worldbeating sack percentage. And Aaron Rogers just, you know, under duress hasn’t looked the same. He had a an a 50.6 rating against the Chargers when he was harassed. He had a 65 rating against the Bills in which he was harassed. U they’ve got to find a way to to give him time to throw the football. Absolutely. And you know that takes the offensive line which I feel like they had been trending in the right direction. Maybe against the Bills uh not so much. It just felt like both lines of scrimmage. Uh the Steelers were getting out physicalled, outbeat um in that area. And I think to protect Aaron, we know he likes to get the ball out quickly, but also, you know, you can go into not going downfield, not being able to get into a rhythm for the run game. All of these things happen if Aaron doesn’t have time to survey the field, figure out what defenses, you know, they’re changing into or what not. So, we’ll have to see how that goes. Yeah, thousand%. And I I agree that he is, everybody is, but he’s much better when not pressured as opposed to under duress at this stage of his career. And the Ravens are interesting because they don’t have Matabuk. Uh they they traded Ooway. So, a lot of their pressures come through blitz. Kyle Hamilton in particular is tremendous at it and just a great overall football player. So, you’re and and to me, Rogers and this group picks up blitz and understands that stuff very well. They just don’t have a lot of great individual pass rushers. It’s an interesting team because they don’t, but they’ve also got a tremendous secondary and they put a lot of investment in their first round picks. They traded for Loey Gilman. Uh, as of right now, they might be getting Ardarius Washington back, another guy to help out that secondary. He’s been out all year. It’s a very good secondary without a very good pass rush. It’s kind of an interesting team. Yeah, especially that trade that I referenced. They traded Ooway, who I thought was their best edge pass rusher for Gilman, a safety. And I kind of thought at the time, well, you’re making a weakness weaker, but now that allows them to blitz a lot more because the secondary is so good. And it also brings Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage. Yep. It has. It has had a good effect for the Ravens for sure. All right, here’s our immaculate prediction question for the week, Matt. This goes back to your key. Will Jaylen Warren score a touchdown? So again, you’re going to be playing against the rest of Steeler Nation. The first place prize is a Jaylen Warren autographed football. That’s pretty good. And of course, Terrible towels, other prizes as well. So join in on the fun for our immaculate prediction with the question up now. Up next, what can the Steelers do to stop Lamar Jackson, Dererick Henry, and the Ravens offense? We’ll let you know when the matchup presented by Shell Polymers resumes. [Music] Our fans are here. Give us something to cheer about today. The crowd at Acure is so loud. There’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ. This defense is swarming. It is kicked off. Wow, what a catch. Get two. Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at Acer Stadium. Here we go. [Music] Well, not good news for Steelers fans in that Lamar Jackson is back under center and of course in the shotgun for the Baltimore Ravens in games December or later in his career. Lamar Jackson is a starting quarterback is 22 and4. Ste will try to slow down Jackson and the Ravens offense on Mon on Sunday, I beg your pardon, with first place on the line in the AFC North. Welcome back to the matchup presented by Shell Polymers alongside Missy Matthews and Matt Williamson. I’m Rob King and and you know Matt, I’m going to get right to to my key because it involves a great note you had. I just mentioned about Lamar Jackson and his great record in December or January. Thanks to Matt Williams and statistics, I know that Derrick Henry has the best yards per game average of any running back since 1970 in the month of December. So, you’ve got a two-headed monster. You got to do two things with Derrick Henry to me. Literally, hit him early because you can’t let him get ahead of team going. He’s a massive guy who’s fast. You don’t want him running around in your secondary. The other get him early is don’t let him get going in the running game. the Ravens will abandon the run. He has three rushes per game, fewer this year than he did last year. We saw in the first matchup, they went away from the running game uh when these two teams met last year. And then when they went to the running game, he averaged 25 rushes per game in the last regular season game and in the playoff game. And he had 348 yards in those two games. So, you got to get to him early for two reasons. physically and just put the run game out of mind for the Ravens. I still have nightmares of Derrick Henry uh from the end of last season in the regular season of course and then of course wild card weekend but agree they did such a great job their first meeting last year when the Ravens were here in Pittsburgh. Um and then it just felt like it got completely changed and I think you know with Lamar struggling a little bit in terms of ball security throwing touchdowns and whatnot that has not happened recently for him. Why would you not lean on Derrick Henry in the run game? And it’s cold AFC North weather, so it makes sense to want to run the ball. I’m not sure why they’ve run it fewer. I mean, there’s game circumstances, you get behind in games, you don’t want to run the ball. But the fact that he’s down almost three carries per game, less than he was a year ago, I don’t know why that is, but I also know that when they got it going against the Steelers last year, they ran it and didn’t stop with Derrick Henry. Yeah. And I think some of it’s situational. They just haven’t had as big a lead late in games. He’s a closer. We all know that and you know we haven’t brought it up but the elephant in the room is the Ravens are going to watch the tape of the Steelers last week and are probably going to run the football in a similar manner or try to they the Steelers are going to try to stop it like they stopped Jonathan Taylor and like they they limited the Bears. Yeah, they’ve done some nice some nice things against the run. Now, uh Lamar Jackson just hasn’t been the same guy. Came back from a hamstring injury his last four games. He has a rating of 69.7. Very unlamarike with the turnovers. He’s not running the ball as much. Um, but he is still a force that has to be contained. Oh, no doubt. And I really dislike that they have extra rest for this game for him, too, because I’m sure that hamstring’s starting to get a little better. They played Thursday night, so they have 10 days for this game. Um, I still think you had Steelers traditionally have done a really good job with their pass rush plan against Lamar. There’s a reason that historically he’s had his worst numbers against the Steelers. It’s a familiarity thing. They keep him in the pocket and he is a great pocket passer now at this stage of his career. But I still think you need to hit him and you got to make him a little bit uncomfortable because I don’t think he’s 100% at all. Seven games against the Steelers. He’s just three and four against Pittsburgh. So, we’ll take that. Hopefully make it three and five after Sunday’s game. And that would be help missy if the Steelers could get back to making some splash plays on defense. turnover culture. That’s what you’re in charge of this week, Jessie. Right. So, got to get some splash plays here on defense. But against Lamar in the regular season, he’s thrown eight touchdowns, has nine interceptions, worse against any other opponent. Of course, they see each other often. Uh TJ Watt has sacked him the most of any quarterback. And I do think, you know, the splash plays, I’m not asking for pick sixes, although I will generously take them. But I think being able to get off the field with splash plays like that, um, we all felt like that moment in Chicago was such a big turning point for the Steelers, um, and obviously things did not go their way, but I think too, um, getting to Lamar, as Matt had said, in terms of sacking him, the Steelers have 34 sacks this season, 10 interceptions. I don’t care where they come from, they have to happen. And I think too that also leads into the special teams game of field position. Something that had hurt the Steelers in Chicago. Uh even in the Bills, it wasn’t where you wanted it to be. And for one possession games that we are used to between these two teams, you know, uh good field position with special teams could make or break it and be that one play that maybe gives somebody enough yards to get that extra field goal to win it or whatnot. So it it’s going to be huge for the Steelers to get back to that takeaway culture. Can’t wait, man. Steelers Ravens. I mean, how much fun is this? You know, fun for us. Lot on the line. Yeah. A lot on the line. And and this great rivalry resumes on Sunday in Baltimore. The Steelers will visit the Ravens with first place on the line in the AFC North. And kickoff is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. at Mnt Bank Stadium. For Missy Matthews, for Matt Williamson. For our entire Steelers production crew, I’m Rob King. Thanks for watching this edition of The Matchup presented by Shell Polymers. [Music]

Rob King, Matt Williamson, and Missi Matthews preview the Steelers game against the Ravens and talk about the matchups to watch in the game