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ATL96Steeler
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Week 9 is rapidly approaching.
The 4-2-1, 1st place Steelers make their annual trek down to Baltimore to play the second game of the year vs the Ravens.
The Ravens come in to this game 4-4 after back to back losses for the 1st time this season. After a 3-1 start including a week 4 win @ PIT, the Ravens have since gone 1-3. The Ravens rank 14th on OFC and 1st on DEF....the last 4 games their scoring has dropped slightly from their 1st 4 games.
It almost doesn't matter how these teams are playing coming into this matchup...the games are typically close. The week 4 game, BAL jumped out to a 14-0 lead 1st Q lead. PIT matched them 14-0 in the 2nd Q and from there, both DEF played pretty well in the 2nd half...BAL was able to move the ball better and got 4 FGs while Ben and company were shut out in the 2nd half enroute to a 26-14 loss.
Injuries...Gilbert (knee), Sensabaugh (foot), both are questionable. Ben (left index finger) probable. Worth noting, Burns was late to a team walk through or meeting and was effectively benched for that reason...it's be interesting to see if he's out of the doghouse or do they go with Sutton like they did last week when Sens came out.
Outlook...PIT won in BAL last year to get the sweep...they can't really afford to get swept in return. There is a chance that BAL could be w/o both starting OTs. PIT will need to play a cleaner game in terms of penalties, and also Fichtner/Ben have to stay balanced with Connor and give them a wrinkle or two they haven't seen 500 times already.
24-20 PIT...I think the BAL OFC played over their heads early, certainly better than I thought they would look. The Steeler DL needs to wreck havoc in this game against a suspect Raven OL.
What say you?
The 4-2-1, 1st place Steelers make their annual trek down to Baltimore to play the second game of the year vs the Ravens.
The Ravens come in to this game 4-4 after back to back losses for the 1st time this season. After a 3-1 start including a week 4 win @ PIT, the Ravens have since gone 1-3. The Ravens rank 14th on OFC and 1st on DEF....the last 4 games their scoring has dropped slightly from their 1st 4 games.
It almost doesn't matter how these teams are playing coming into this matchup...the games are typically close. The week 4 game, BAL jumped out to a 14-0 lead 1st Q lead. PIT matched them 14-0 in the 2nd Q and from there, both DEF played pretty well in the 2nd half...BAL was able to move the ball better and got 4 FGs while Ben and company were shut out in the 2nd half enroute to a 26-14 loss.
Injuries...Gilbert (knee), Sensabaugh (foot), both are questionable. Ben (left index finger) probable. Worth noting, Burns was late to a team walk through or meeting and was effectively benched for that reason...it's be interesting to see if he's out of the doghouse or do they go with Sutton like they did last week when Sens came out.
Outlook...PIT won in BAL last year to get the sweep...they can't really afford to get swept in return. There is a chance that BAL could be w/o both starting OTs. PIT will need to play a cleaner game in terms of penalties, and also Fichtner/Ben have to stay balanced with Connor and give them a wrinkle or two they haven't seen 500 times already.
24-20 PIT...I think the BAL OFC played over their heads early, certainly better than I thought they would look. The Steeler DL needs to wreck havoc in this game against a suspect Raven OL.
What say you?