{"id":639430,"date":"2025-12-30T04:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T04:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/639430\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T04:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T04:06:15","slug":"dont-see-how-they-can-get-it-done-bucky-brooks-pessimistic-about-steelers-chances-against-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/639430\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t See How They Can Get It Done’: Bucky Brooks Pessimistic About Steelers’ Chances Against Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The regular season is almost over, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have a lot to play for still.<\/a> Their season comes down to Week 18 against the Baltimore Ravens. If they win or tie, they\u2019re in the playoffs. If they lose, then their season is over. This matchup has a lot of stakes to it, but Bucky Brooks is pessimistic about the Steelers\u2019 chances of beating the Ravens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no one on their wide receiver corps that you have to double-team, tilt coverage to, or anything,\u201d Brooks said Monday on his Move the Sticks podcast.<\/a> \u201cNow, you can concentrate on the running game. You can squeeze the pocket of Aaron Rodgers, and they have no recourse.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this team to lose to Cleveland like that, if I\u2019m Baltimore, I\u2019m gonna replicate this. And Baltimore is a more dynamic offense. They are going uphill in this Week 18 matchup against Baltimore to win the division. I\u2019ll be honest, I just don\u2019t see how they can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers\u2019 flaws were abundantly clear against the Cleveland Browns. As Brooks says, with DK Metcalf suspended, the Steelers had no legitimate threat in the pass game. That handcuffed their offense. Not only did it hurt how they could attack through the air, but it also limited what their run game could do.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t even including that Darnell Washington broke his arm in Week 17. That likely puts him out for Week 18. That\u2019s another huge blow to an<\/a> already shorthanded Steelers\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n

However, the Ravens might not be able to utilize the Browns\u2019 game plan as effectively. The biggest reason is that they don\u2019t have a pass rusher of Myles Garrett\u2019s caliber. Garrett has 22 sacks by himself. The Ravens have only 28 sacks as a team, with defensive tackle Travis Jones leading with four.<\/p>\n

Therefore, they might not be able to rattle Rodgers as much. Additionally, the Ravens\u2019 defense as a whole hasn\u2019t been great this year. It was ranked 27th in the league going into Week 17. For all the Browns\u2019 faults, their defense has been good, ranking second overall.<\/p>\n

The Ravens\u2019 defensive struggles might not matter, though. The Steelers still don\u2019t have an apparent threat to stress Baltimore\u2019s defense. The collection of Scotty Miller, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Adam Thielen, and Roman Wilson isn\u2019t exactly putting fear into the hearts of defensive backs.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, Calvin Austin III can at least return after missing Week 17 with a hamstring injury. Perhaps the Steelers will get Pat Freiermuth, Kenneth Gainwell, and Jaylen Warren more involved, too. They\u2019ve all made plays when given opportunities.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, someone on offense needs to step up. Otherwise, Brooks\u2019 prediction could come true. The Ravens could run away with this one, especially if Derrick Henry gets going.<\/a> He\u2019s had the Steelers\u2019 number in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The regular season is almost over, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have a lot to play for still. Their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,8592,7,89428,6,57,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-639430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-bucky-brooks","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-move-the-sticks","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115806547824514491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}