John Harbaugh was in his first year as Baltimore's coach, Mike Tomlin in his second for Pittsburgh. After a pair of clashes that came down to the wire during the 2008 regular season, the two met again in the AFC championship game.
They were just getting started.
Now those two are the longest-tenured coaches in the NFL, and under their stewardship, the Ravens and Steelers have kept their rivalry humming. For 18 weeks, they battled for the AFC North title this season, and on Saturday night in Baltimore, Harbaugh and Tomlin will face each other in the playoffs. It'll be their fourth postseason matchup and the fifth playoff meeting overall between the rival franchises.
“Going to Baltimore, particularly in playoff football, is something to be respected. I expect it to be a hostile environment,” Tomlin said. “I welcome that, to be quite honest with you. It’s important that we smile in the face of that. As a collective, it’s just simply a tax to pay for not winning the division and we pay that.”
The Ravens (12-5) won their final four games of the regular season while the Steelers (10-7) dropped their last four. That gives Baltimore a chance to host Pittsburgh in the postseason for the first time. Their previous four playoff meetings — in the 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2014 seasons — were all in the Steel City. The home team won three of them.
In terms of stakes, it's hard to top that AFC title game in January 2009, which Pittsburgh won 23-14. The brutality of the rivalry was on full display, with Ravens running back Willis McGahee having to be carted off the field after a hit by Ryan Clark.
That was the first of three playoff meetings in a seven-season span between the Steelers and Ravens. In January 2011, Pittsburgh held Baltimore to 126 total net yards in a 31-24 win. Four years after that, the Ravens ousted the Steelers with a 30-17 victory.
It's now been a decade since this matchup last occurred in the playoffs, but recent regular-season meetings have been tightly contested. Baltimore's 34-17 victory last month was a change, both because Pittsburgh had won eight of its previous nine against the Ravens, and because all nine of those games were decided by seven points or fewer.
This is the only matchup of opponents from the same division this weekend, and there weren't any in the playoffs last season. But the postseason two years ago included 49ers-Seahawks (NFC West), Bills-Dolphins (AFC East), Bengals-Ravens (AFC North) and Eagles-Giants (NFC East).
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“There’s a lot of things that have kind of been ingrained in your knowledge of a team in division like that who you’ve already played twice, so your jumping-off point is further down the road for sure,” Harbaugh said. “That’s about the only difference.”
Unavailable
The Ravens will be without Lamar Jackson's top wide receiver target. Zay Flowers injured his knee last weekend and has been ruled out.
“I don’t think it changes anything,” Baltimore receiver Rashod Bateman said. “The No. 1 goal is to go out and make plays, and that’s what we’re looking forward to doing, and I think that’s what we’ll do.”
Under the microscope
Jackson has won two MVPs, and he's a contender for a third after becoming the first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 900 in the same season. The one thing he hasn't yet accomplished is a Super Bowl run. His best chance was last year, when Baltimore lost at home to Kansas City in the AFC title game.
Jackson threw 41 touchdown passes and only four interceptions this season. If that ratio of over 10 to 1 carries over into the playoffs, the Ravens will probably be very happy with their QB.
Hi, George?
Steelers wide receiver George Pickens had perhaps the worst game of his three-year career last week against Cincinnati, dropping three passes and finishing with one reception for 0 yards. Video circulated on social media of Pickens motioning toward fans in the stands at Acrisure Stadium after the loss.
The talented but temperamental Pickens is Pittsburgh’s best downfield threat and had a season-high eight receptions for 89 yards in the Steelers’ 18-16 win over the Ravens in November, though a hamstring injury forced him to miss the rematch. Pittsburgh’s best option to break out of its slump would be to get Pickens involved early and keep him engaged.
Establishing the run
Derrick Henry fumbled early for the Ravens in Pittsburgh's win over Baltimore in November. In the December rematch, he ran for 162 yards, and the Steelers had a much harder time containing the Ravens' offense.
Baltimore set an NFL record with 5.76 yards rushing per attempt this season. It was actually a bit higher than that in the two games against Pittsburgh, but turnovers can be a major equalizer if the Steelers force them.
For starters
There are 32 teams in the NFL. Thirty-one of them scored a touchdown on their opening drive at least once this season. The Steelers did not.
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While sluggish starts weren’t much of an issue when Pittsburgh won 10 of its first 13 games, the Steelers have fallen behind by double digits in the first half of each of their last four contests and never caught up.
And now Pittsburgh finds itself trying to end a five-game playoff losing streak. In each game, it fell behind by double digits in the first half and never caught up.
“I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of playoff games, a lot of moments, and I think to be able to use that experience and to talk to guys about what it feels like, what it is, and the moments that can forever change your life and all that,” said quarterback Russell Wilson, who is in his first season with the Steelers. “So, we’re living it. We’re right in the middle of it right now, and we’re excited about that opportunity to go show who we can be.”