PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens rivalry is not as intense as it used to be in the 2000s, thanks to several rule changes in the NFL. However, Sunday’s pivotal matchup between the two clubs could be chippy with multiple players switching sides between the Steelers and Ravens.
Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen revealed this week that he has a chip on his shoulder due to the Ravens not making an offer to re-sign him. He felt like it was a slap in the face. There’s no doubt about it, Queen is locked in this week.
“Same exact way,” Queen said when asked what the Ravens locker room is like on Steelers week. “We understand what type of football is gonna be played. So practice is gonna be more intense. Meetings are gonna be more intense. Everybody’s gonna be locked in.”
Steelers wide receiver George Pickens, who was born in 2001, remembers watching Steelers legend Hines Ward play against the Ravens in some AFC North bloodbaths.
“Yeah, I used to watch Hines Ward all the time,” Pickens said on Friday when asked about some of the memorable plays from Ward in the rivalry. “We can’t do some of the stuff Hines Ward used to do now, but I used to watch him all the time.”
In the golden era of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry, Ward once threw a crushing block on All-Pro safety Ed Reed on Monday Night Football in 2007. Pickens is right, if that happened in today’s game, Ward would’ve got tossed from the game and received a hefty fine.
The Ravens hated Ward so much that they had a bounty on him in 2008.
During the “2 Live Stews” syndicated radio show in October of 2008, Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs was asked, “Did you all put a bounty out on that young man [Rashard Mendenhall], who suffered a season-ending fractured shoulder in the Week 4 game against Baltimore.
Suggs replied, “Definitely. The bounty was out on him and the bounty was out on [Ward] — we just didn’t get him between the whistles.”
Also during the interview, Suggs called Ward “a dirty player” and “a cheap-shot artist. … We got something in store for him.”
https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1857808346239164622
The first 60 meetings between the Steelers and Ravens have not disappointed with 25 of them being decided by three or less points. While iot might not be as physical and intense as those Steelers-Ravens games in the 2000s, Sunday’s showdown should be another iconic addition to the historic rivalry.
“We’re just simply writing the latest chapter this week with some new faces, new faces for us and new faces for them as well,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday. “Guys get an opportunity to be a component of this thing, and even some guys flipping sides, you know, guys like Patrick Queen and [Jeremiah] Moon being on this side of it, just like Arthur Maulet a year or so ago, moving to their side of it.”
RELATED: Former Ravens Open Up About Switching Sides with Steelers
Alan Saunders and Aaron Becker provided reporting from Pittsburgh.