Riding a 5-game winning streak, the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday, in a afternoon national TV game on Christmas day.

As is customary, I’m back with this week’s bold predictions, and I still didn’t do all that bad last week:

• Dalton didn’t “get destroyed” but he was under a lot of duress.
• Ben threw more touchdowns than interceptions (1 to 0!)
• J. Green was grounded (but in fairness, he never “took off” and did not play).
• Someone got fined! (Marcus Gilbert.)

Yeah, I thought that Bud Dupree and James Harrison would go off on Dalton (didn’t happen) and I also felt that William Gay would get his record-breaking pick six (also didn’t happen) but that’s okay: you win some, you lose some.

This week I feel I have some better views of the black and gold crystal ball… so here we go!

Steelers beat the spread

Rarely do I pay attention to the line on games (i.e. Vegas betting) but in this one, I think 5.5 is way too close.

Here’s why.

In their last game, the Ravens scored on a lucky 95-yard missed tackle-and-run by Mike Wallace.

Their only other touchdown came on special teams, following a blocked punt.

Considering the Ravens have trouble running the football, and the Steelers defense has improved vastly since Week 9, I can’t see the Ravens offense doing much in this one.

On the other hand, a healthy Big Ben, and no other injuries in-game, should bode well for Pittsburgh’s offense. As usual, they are the ones that can beat themselves: if they don’t, they’ll easily lay the 5.5 point spread, and in my opinion, could put up 30+ on the Ravens.

Bell embarrasses the Ravens D

With Jimmy Smith out, I think the Ravens defense will be hard-pressed to stop all facets of the Steelers offense. In that regard, Baltimore is one of the top run-stopping defenses in the league, but missing one of their major pieces, and the Steelers maybe without Sammie Coates, I could see Bell doing his damage as a receiver: he goes for a buck-fifty all-purpose and at least one touchdown.

Fans actually like the Color Rush jerseys

The reception to the Bumblebee throwback jerseys were lukewarm, but I expect everyone will rave over the all-black Steelers kit this Sunday, which likens itself to the uber popular 75th anniversary jerseys Pittsburgh wore as an alternate for five seasons.

In my opinion, fans are going to go crazy over this set.

Flacco falls four times

The sack party will be back this week. Flacco can move (some) but he’s not extremely mobile, nor does he run often.

Yes, the vision of him breaking his knee brace in the last game is fresh in my head, because he doesn’t typically move!

Don’t forget, Ben had a rushing touchdown in that same game, less than three weeks from knee surgery – so never say never.

I’m calling a sack each for James Harrison, Bud Dupree, Sean Davis and Javon Hargrave.

Tucker misses

This guy can literally hit field goals from anywhere… I’ve credited him as one of the best, if not the best kicker in the NFL today. However, he has to miss sometime, and the open-end of Heinz Field is as good as any spot for him to do so.

The Ravens have literally won some of their games off his foot; their offense struggles to move the ball, and they trot Tucker out for a 50+ yard try.

This weekend? Not going to work!

Call it faith or whatever, but I think Tucker misses, and it helps keep the Ravens deflated en route to a Steelers victory.