Players, coaches agree: Steelers-Ravens deserves reputation as NFL’s most physical
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The time over which Steelers-Ravens is referenced as among the most — if not the most — physical and hardest-hitting rivalry in football can be measured not in years but by the decade.
From television play-by-play announcers to the talking-head commentators on cable, the hype machine has promoted the two annual Pittsburgh-Baltimore games as “must-see” because of their old-school, low-scoring, in-the-trenches style meetings dating to the turn of the century when they were developing into AFC powers that would combine for five conference championships between 2000-12.
But as the league has evolved, with most varieties of hard hits falling on a spectrum of discouraged to banned, and with all of the major protagonists in the Steelers/Ravens head-to-head meetings of the 2000s no longer part of the rivalry, has referencing this rivalry as the NFL’s most physical become passe? Has it become a relic of the past? With Ray Lewis and Troy Polamalu and James Harrison and Terrell Suggs out of the league, are the coaches who speak of the combustible nature of Steelers/Ravens today providing lip service to feed the content beast?
No, several players on both teams who will face each other in Sunday’s 8:20 p.m. meeting say. The legend of bruising battles between the Steelers and Ravens very much lives on.
“It’s not just a motivational speech,” Steelers linebacker Robert Spillane said. “It is what it is. And it’s that understanding of it going into the game from both sides that creates those physical matchups, so I know we have been preparing for it all week. I know they have been preparing for it all week.
“It’s definitely a physical week, that’s for sure. We know that every time we step into the stadium with them.”
Najee Harris on the Ravens defense pic.twitter.com/fRqrMYWqhg
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 9, 2022
Rules changes mean there might never be games such as the bloodbaths of 10-15 years ago, when seemingly every meeting involved a play that raised eyebrows and/or left somebody injured.
There was the 2008 AFC championship game when a hit by Steelers safety Ryan Clark resulted in Willis McGahee leaving the field on a stretcher. Earlier that season, it was the Steelers’ featured running back — Rashard Mendenhall — whose season was ended by way of a crushing hit by the Ravens’ Lewis.
Then-Ravens linebacker Bart Scott bragged about “feeling the air leave” the body of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as the result of a hit during a 2006 game, and four years later, Baltimore’s Haloti Ngata broke Big Ben’s nose when the latter was sacked in a crucial late-season night game.
Those types of Steelers/Ravens plays live on, and not just via fans’ YouTube searches.
Receiver Miles Boykin spent his first three NFL seasons with the Ravens before joining the Steelers this year. He said Baltimore team meetings during “Steelers week” often feature old highlights of hard-hitting past meetings.
“All I can tell you is how physical it is and how they preach it over there (in the Ravens’ facility),” Boykin said this week. “A lot of the history, some of the hits, they definitely play those reels. We watch it just to be ready.
“The mindset you have going into this game definitely is the physicality that it brings.”
Robert Spillane on the Ravens’ offense not changing regardless of the starting QB pic.twitter.com/fAikBjDX35
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 8, 2022
Myriad players on both teams’ offensive and defensive lines this week remarked how “physical” their counterparts were on the opposition’s lines. That includes players who are new to the rivalry such as former Chicago Bears James Daniels and Roquan Smith, who this year joined the Steelers and Ravens, respectively.
“Oh, it’s definitely a physical game, playing those guys,” said Smith, an inside linebacker traded to Baltimore on Oct. 31. “I even remember being a kid watching the games, the Ravens-Pittsburgh game, and seeing (it) then. And I always knew it was a very physical game, and just being out there … you definitely feel like there are some slobber-knockers, (and) guys want to run right at you (to) test your manhood in a sense.”
#Steelers margin for error to avoid their first losing season under coach Mike Tomlin is nil as the result of a 16-14 loss Sunday to the #Ravens at Acrisure Stadium. https://t.co/ALRB6Fp32v
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 11, 2022
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin this week called Steelers-Ravens “an attrition game.” Coaches on both sides not only preach such mindsets during team meetings, they also adapt philosophies accordingly, such as when the Steelers went with a fully-padded practice Friday.
Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin has been on both sides of Steelers-Ravens, having served as Baltimore’s secondary coach from 2011-13.
“The teams are built very similarly,” Austin said. “Me having an opportunity to be in both buildings, I understand it. Tough, physical guys that love football, that’s kind of the first thing you look at when you’re looking at players. And so, obviously, when you put those two types of teams on the field, it’s going to be a hard-hitting affair, and that’s why everybody talks about it the way they do.
“I don’t see that changing. I don’t think anybody has to change because that’s who we are, and that’s who they are. That’s why when you look at all the games, I mean, in totality, how close everything is. It always is.”