Merry Christmas from NFL From the Sidelines. Hope Santa brought you all everything you wanted.
What the Steelers want this week is a victory and I liked their chances in this one even before the offense put up more than 500 yards against Green Bay last Sunday.
The Steelers and Ravens don't care for each other. That much is no secret to anyone.
And regardless of anything else that's happened this season, these two teams will get after each other like they do nobody else.
The Steelers sacked Joe Flacco five times - all in the second half - in their overtime loss at Baltimore earlier this season.
That was a game in which the Steelers were not only missing Troy Polamalu - who won't play again this week - but Ben Roethlisberger as well.
That balanced out with Baltimore missing defensive end/linebacker Terrell Suggs and safety Ed Reed.
Suggs will be back for this one, but Reed is still out. And without him, Baltimore's secondary is as scary as … the Steelers' without Polamalu. In other words, not scary at all.
Now that the Steelers have gotten a good long look at the speed and shiftiness of Baltimore running back Ray Rice, they'll have a little better idea of how to get him on the ground. That was a problem in the first meeting.
And Pittsburgh's defense will do enough to confuse Flacco, who will be outplayed by Roethlisberger.
Take Pittsburgh to win, 24-17, to stay alive in the AFC playoff race.
7 comments:
Merry Christmas, Dale. I hope you're right with the prediction! Go Steelers.
Dale,
What's the deal with J. Harrison not practicing today w/ a biceps injury?
Is he actually in jeopardy of missing this one?
thanks and merry christmas.
Merry Christmas to all, but especially my anonymous followers/mimickers.
I'll take the Steelers by 23-20.
Merry Christmas, Dale. I hope your prediction is right!
I'd be shocked if James doesn't play. Don't know what the injury is though since I wasn't down there on Christmas day.
Merry Christmas Dale.
Ravens win 27 - 13.
I never try and predict game results much less scores but I like their chances a lot better without Ed Reed in there.
I'm not convinced Deshea Townsend will be an upgrade over William Gay but he must offer more chance of making a pick. The Ravens are relatively thin at receiver so this is probably a good game to send a message to Mr. Gay. Let's face it, the Steelers aren't the type of team to run out courting big name FA corners. We're stuck with Willie for a while. I think he'll come around. He's a decent tackler and has had some nice games this season that have been forgotten with the 5-game debacle. Teams have no fear of making a mistake against this secondary OR against the linebackers. If we can't force some INTs it won't matter what Big Ben and Air Arians concoct.
Third-down defense and poor turnover ratio has killed us this season, even more than the KR touchdowns.
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