Pregame thread: Ravens Vs Steelers Saturday Jan 6 4:30pm

[madinsomniac]

So the schedule makers screw us again with a short week early Saturday game…

Thats a Monday night game, two Thursday nights and three Saturday games this season …

Also while the Ravens have clinched, Harbaugh may not rest his starters… Lamar, in particular, may play this game…

But the Ravens secondary is the walking wounded right now… however somehow their pass rush is top notch despite not expecting to be great this season… they just plug and play rushers…


Anyway there are now four ways for the steelers to get in.

First off the playoff knowns: there are four
-Baltimore won the AFC North and the top seed.
-The Second Seed goes to the winner of the AFC East, which will be the winner of the Miami or Buffalo game Sunday Night. Miami could fall to sixth with a loss, Buffalo could finish 6th, 7th or out altogether.
- the Third Seed will be KC, win or lose.
- The fifth seed will be Cleveland, win or lose
- the souths winner will be the fourth seed no matter what, but it could be Jacksonville, Houston or Indy

There are two Wildcard spots available.
1. Steelers win, Buffalo loss..
Steelers and Buffalo tie at 10-7. Steelers get in via a better AFC record
2. Steelers win, Jacksonville loses.
The Winner of the Indy-Houston game wins the AFC South and gets the 4th spot.. the Loser and The Jags finish 9-8, the Steelers are 10-7.
3. Steelers win, Houston and Indy Tie
Steelers finish 10-7, the other two finish 9-7-1

There is a single Steelers loss scenario I hadn’t noticed before

The Steelers Lose, finishing 9-8 and 6-6 in the AFC.
and:
The Jaguar lose, finishing 9-8 and 6-6 in the conference
and:
The Broncos win, finishing 9-8 and 6-6 in the conference.

This creates a three way tie for the last wild card spot ( Jacksonville eliminates the loser of the Indy / Houston game in divisional tiebreakers and the winner already takes the division)

Since there aren’t four common games between all three clubs, it drops all the way down to strength of Victory.

The least the Steelers could finish with in this scenario is 80 and the Highest Jacksonville could get is 74 ( I didn’t calculate the Broncos since the NFL already mathematically eliminated them… they weren’t topping 80… thats very high for a 9 win team… )


So that is what we are rooting for this week




My concern is that the Oline has looked better passblocking because the Run game has slowed down the pass rush… and that probably doesn’t happen if the Ravens play their starters… so I am pretty worried the offense regresses badly..

 

[Confluence]

Who is QB2 this week?

 

[SteelerFan448]

I like the early game. No scoreboard watching for the Steelers. They can fully concentrate on taking care of business.

 

[ZonaBurgh]

I like the early game. No scoreboard watching for the Steelers. They can fully concentrate on taking care of business.

Yep, if they pull off a win, and with this team who knows, we can all sit back, relax and watch the Sunday games hoping for a post-Christmas miracle.

And let me add, before this last 2 game winning streak, I was hoping they would just lose out and get close to a top ten pick next year, but no, they produce a pulse and drag me back in.

 

[steelhurt]

I think John Harbaugh will rest most of his starters especially Lamar. He may start guys like Ronnie Stanley the LT, and Tyler Lindenbaum (spelling) the center, but he’ll pull them after a series or two.
Same on defense, he’ll probably start Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen but pull them after a series or two.
Harbaugh is not stupid and this game means absolutely nothing to the Ravens.

 

[steelhurt]

I’ll also add that I’m so sick of the same crap every year with this organization.
One of two scenarios always seem to play out:
Start slow get behind in the division race then finish with a flurry of wins but come up short.
Start out faster get to a good record mid season, look like a clear playoff team but lose to a bunch of low level teams and knock yourself right out of the playoffs.
Poor coaching decision to not at least try Mason in that Pats game or even give him that start with a week of preparation. Most likely we win the Pats game and who knows with the Colts game.
Now Tomlin gets the credit for turning things around when in fact it was Mason who made this look like an NFL offense and turned things around.
Shades now will be guaranteed to get his extension and it will be business as usual.

 

[jitter77]

I think John Harbaugh will rest most of his starters especially Lamar. He may start guys like Ronnie Stanley the LT, and Tyler Lindenbaum (spelling) the center, but he’ll pull them after a series or two.
Same on defense, he’ll probably start Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen but pull them after a series or two.
Harbaugh is not stupid and this game means absolutely nothing to the Ravens.

Only thing i worry about is last time the Ravens rested guys they came out flat and got upset, but is it really worth it to risk injury to key players. I think he may play starters a series or 2

 

[SteelerFan448]

Only thing i worry about is last time the Ravens rested guys they came out flat and got upset, but is it really worth it to risk injury to key players. I think he may play starters a series or 2

I'll never forget RGIII just laughing the entire game. If Harbaugh announces he's resting starters, I'm showing highlights of the Ravens backups schooling the Steelers that day on repeat leading up to the game.

 

[KentuckySteeler]

 

[KentuckySteeler]

 

[slashsteel]

Who is QB2 this week?

Kenny ******* .

 

[madinsomniac]

I think John Harbaugh will rest most of his starters especially Lamar. He may start guys like Ronnie Stanley the LT, and Tyler Lindenbaum (spelling) the center, but he’ll pull them after a series or two.
Same on defense, he’ll probably start Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen but pull them after a series or two.
Harbaugh is not stupid and this game means absolutely nothing to the Ravens.

the issue is twofold… some positions they are really beat up and probably won’t have the luxury of resting starters

And secondly, much of the staff and team from 2019 seems to blame resting starters and getting basically a two week break as to why they lost that year… so Lamar and most of the team seems to want to play and and the staff seems to at least be considering it

 

[Booted]

Game is on ESPN... Another game I won't get.

 

[madinsomniac]

Out of 17 games we played what? 8 at Sunday 1pm? None in the last 5 weeks … pretty ****** if you ask me

 

[Drink IRON City]

Out of 17 games we played what? 8 at Sunday 1pm? None in the last 5 weeks … pretty ****** if you ask me

2 ————— Thursday night
1 ————— Monday night

3 ——— SATURDAY

Any Questions !!!

**** roger godell with a RED HOT POKER,——— twice



Salute the nation