Steelers, Ravens Defenses Headed in Opposite Directions
With the regular season in our rear view mirrors, Wild Card weekend is upon us, and the NFL is surely excited about how the schedule played out for ratings purposes, as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin faces off with John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs for the fourth time in their careers.
These two highly successfully gentlemen have been dancing together for quite some time now, and will forever be compared to and linked with one another in the history books. With no love lost between the organizations and for as much animosity that exists between the fan bases, these two franchises have become synonymous with one thing in common: defense.
Since being hired almost exactly a year apart, both coaches set out to uphold a standard set by their predecessors, which is to play tough, physical defense to lay the foundation for their teams success. Although Las Vegas is certainly leaning towards this game being somewhat less competitive than previous bouts, these games often resemble rock fights that come down to the wire.
While there are similarities in their principles, it’s been a tale of two finishes between them this season. Baltimore’s defense was scorching hot down the stretch, allowing them to take the division by storm. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s defense struggled over the final month and didn’t resemble the top-five unit that we saw earlier this year.
After a disastrous start to 2024 under new defensive coordinator Zach Orr, the Ravens deserve a lot of credit for the changes they integrated the results that followed. Since these two teams first met in Week 11, Baltimore finished with year with a superb -.153 EPA/play, combined with a stout 36.8% success rate, both of which were tops in the league over that time frame by a wide margin.
This is a group that’s humming right now. The players are executing their assignments with a lot fewer coverage busts on film and that’s helped them limit the explosive plays that plagued them over the first half of the season. So, what’s different?
By removing Kyle Hamilton from the box and sliding him back to more of a traditional safety role, the Ravens have found stability that they were lacking. It helps having a cornerback in Marlon Humphrey, who has extensive prior expensive playing inside from his younger days, making that transition even more seamless.
Trading a seventh-round pick for Tre’Davious White seemed like a shot in the dark at the time but has been a move that’s worked out thus far, even if he’s not the player he was three or four years ago. This isn’t a flawless group by any means. Malik Harrison was one of the pieces inserted into the lineup midway through the year and is someone you can exploit to a degree, but this is still one of the more drastic in-season turn arounds in recent memory.
On the flip side of that, the Steelers defense fell off the wagon late and sort of limped into the playoffs to a degree. During the final eight weeks of the regular season, Pittsburgh ranked 20th in defensive EPA/play, 27th in success rate and allowed 27 or more points on four occasions. There were some concerning trends that popped up on film but the genesis of their struggles can be relayed back to a few different things that can be lumped into the blown assignments department. Teams have been attacking them with motion and bunches to counter all of the main coverages that they’ve been attempting to play. It has led to several instances of guys appearing confused pre-snap, leading to receiving threats running free down the field.
The pass defense has garnered more scrutiny but their play in the trenches hasn’t been much better. Over 44% of opponents’ runs have been deemed successful and the Ravens in particular, used heavy personnel (two or more tight ends) to gash them with explosive runs to Derrick Henry and even backup tailback Justice Hill in that Week 16 matchup.
The Steelers’ biggest advantage in this game from a matchup standpoint is their pass rush, but in order to get into those third and long situations, they’ll have to find a way to stall out a potent Ravens rushing attack. On a positive note, there were fewer of those mental errors in the finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, which is something that will obviously have to carry over to this weekend in order to have a shot.
It goes without saying that the Steelers fixing their shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball is paramount because unlike the Ravens, they don’t have an offensive attack that’s capable of picking them up when they fall short. In previous matchups, they’ve applied a ton of heat on Lamar Jackson, often sending pressure and playing man coverage on the back end. Without Zay Flowers, their leading receiver, in the lineup, that task becomes a bit easier to say the least. Jackson hasn’t turned the ball over much this season and even his interceptions have been more of the flukey variety but he is prone to putting the ball on the ground from time to time.
There’s so much more on the line here that just a berth to the divisional round. This is Steelers-Ravens that we’re talking about. Harbuagh’s Ravens are trying to finally break through and get over the hump in the postseason and in order to do that, they’ll have to go through a defense that’s given Lamar Jackson some issues in the past. Tomlin’s Steelers are trying to break an awfully painful eight-year postseason win drought anchored by some truly poor defensive performances in that stretch. It feels like something has to give.
Pittsburgh’s brainpower made the conscious offseason decision to make this the highest-paid defense in football. They’re essentially fully healthy in this one with all of their starters in the lineup. In order to advance, they’ll need this unit firing on all cylinders on Saturday night.
Read This Next
