Duel Opinions: What are the keys to beating the Ravens?

Each week the Steel City Underground staff will put their brilliant minds to task in order to come up with their keys to the game, or, those players, coaching decisions, or situations which could determine the outcome of the game.

The Steelers play host to their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football. The SCU panel gives their thoughts on Monday’s keys to winning the game.

Joe Kuzma

Ring the bell: Le’Veon Bell.

It’s December and it’s, as Ben Roethlisberger stated “AFC North football”. Nothing correlates better with those two things than running the football, something Bell has done to perfection in Pittsburgh’s last two victories over Baltimore.

In those games, he’s run for 122 and 144 yards while scoring two touchdowns apiece whether it be through the air or on the ground. Getting Bell moving will be big with JuJu Smith-Schuster out and the Steelers realizing they cannot afford to lose time of possession, as they nearly handed the Bengals last week’s game with a poor offensive showing in the first half.

Look for Le’Veon to get moving early and often in this one.

Tina Rivers

A repeat of last Christmas’ game would be fantastic, but realistically the Ravens look better in the defensive backfield this year. It will be key for the Steelers offense to utilize all available weapons – from Bell to Brown to Bryant and the depth of their roster – and give Ben Roethlisberger what he needs (time in pocket, protection) to push this team to a win.

On defense, the Steelers are reeling from the injury to Ryan Shazier, but Cam Heyward will play a big veteran role in rallying the team once again this week to play their position, maintain their angles and rattle Joe Flacco into costly errors. I expect a big play from the Steelers’ defensive backfield as well as the defensive front will be focused on limiting the run of Alex Collins. Big game with big potential.

Brian E. Roach

I hate to sound like a broken record, OK, well, no I don’t. The lines, both offensive and defensive are the keys to this game. If the Steelers can run, it keeps the Ravens off the field, and that is going to fall squarely on the shoulders of the offensive line. With Brandon Williams back in full force, the Ravens defense has become the solid unit it normally is. They have shut down the run of most teams recently, and while they still rank only 17th in the league, that is not indicative of the way they are playing right now.

On the flip side, the Steelers defensive line needs to do two things – contain the run, and put pressure on Flacco. If they can contain a much more effective running game that will put more pressure on the Ravens, and if they can get to Flacco a couple of times, he’s shown that he will make mistakes. The rush needs to help compensate for the injuries in the secondary and linebacking crew by getting home and getting Flacco on the ground. It all starts up front on both sides of the ball for the Steelers in this game.

Terry Fletcher

With familiar faces like Arthur Moats and James Harrison returning to the defensive lineup, these veteran leaders will be called upon by the captain of the Steelers defense, Cam Heyward, to lead the charge taking down Joe Flacco.

Lately, it has appeared that Joe is playing tentative, trying not to get hit or hurt and making some mistakes that have the Ravens in a hole. But there is that false perception that they are on an offensive roll due to high-scoring games against bad teams.

The Steelers play down to bad teams and the Ravens play up to bad teams. So the keys to this game are simple:

1 – Take the emotion of Shazier’s injury and channel it to focus on the objective. An AFC North win.

2 – Has anyone checked Chris Boswell’s foot? He said it stung a bit after the Bengals edge defender jumped offsides and ran into his foot before he kicked the game winner last Monday Night.

The Steelers need to make sure Boz is good to go as these contest are usually won by a very small margin of a field goal and I have a feeling that could be the case on Sunday night in prime time once again.


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