Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers Preview and Pick

NFL Football Betting Preview
Baltimore Ravens (8-6) at Pittsburgh Steelers (7-6)
Sunday December 27th, 1:00PM Eastern

Betus.com betting line – Steelers -2 ½ , 42 O/U

One of the bigger rivalries in the AFC takes center stage this Sunday when the Baltimore Ravens collide with the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field. The game marks a week 12 rematch that resulted in a nail biting overtime win for the Ravens 20-17. However, this Sunday’s battle will be even bigger as both teams have playoff implications up for grabs. The Steelers are coming off a thrilling win last week against the Green Bay Packers 37-36. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a 19 yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace as time expired in the exciting victory ending a 5 games losing streak. The Steelers will now attempt to knock off a Ravens team that currently owns one of the wildcard spots in the playoffs. However, if Pittsburgh can find a way to score the victory it will open the door for a ton of teams that currently sit at 7-7 including the Steelers.

Baltimore has really impressed over the last two weeks. The Ravens offense sputtered through the middle of the season, but a spark in the running game has yielded big results over the past few games. The Ravens blew out both Detroit and Chicago by a combined score of 79-10 and they are playing fairly well to say the least. Running back Ray Rice has run the ball well recently racking up over 250 yards in the past two games. Rice’s success on the ground has also benefited QB Joe Flacco and the passing game. Flacco has completed just less than 70% over the past two games with 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. As a result, WR Derrick Mason has put together back to back solid performances averaging about 90 yards each game with 2 total touchdowns. If Mason continues to play well, he is just 72 yards shy of reaching the 1,000 yards receiving mark for the 8th time in his career and he will look to reach that milestone against the Steelers this Sunday.

On the Steelers side of the field, their offense has turned into a full blown pass heavy offense that has nearly forgotten about the use of a running game. However, Roethlisberger proved last week that the running game does not have to be a factor as he became the first Pittsburgh Steelers player in history to throw for 500 yards. That’s right in case you missed it Roethlisberger compiled 503 yards completing 29 of 46 passes for 3 touchdowns in the big victory over Green Bay in an amazing performance. In fact, it was just the 10th time in NFL history a quarterback has thrown for over 500 yards.

However, the question is how will Roethlisberger perform this week following his monstrous performance last week? The Ravens rank 6th against the pass allowing just 200 yards per game, but that was nearly identical to the number that Green Bay had allowed entering last week’s game. Wide outs Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward have both already eclipsed the 1,000 yards receiving mark. Both receivers can really cause trouble for the Ravens defense. However when an outside threat like Mike Wallace gets involved similar to last week against Green Bay, the Steelers receiving core is nearly impossible to defend hence the big day by Roethlisberger.

Normally the factor entering this AFC North rivalry showdown surrounds the defenses in these two teams. Baltimore and Pittsburgh have historically dominated AFC offenses. Pittsburgh currently ranks 6th overall while the Ravens are 4th in total defense both of which may be a little bit worse than expected considering how well both defenses played a year ago. Each defense is allowing right at 300 yards per game, but the biggest defensive match-up will still be the way each secondary defends the opposing passing game. The Ravens secondary will really need to play well against the Steelers offense if they are going to come out still in control of their postseason hopes. However, if they allow another big day from the Steelers pass offense they will be on the outside looking in.

Pick – Over 42