Steelers-Ravens an even rivalry — except when backup QBs play … and Lamar Jackson is doubtful
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Never over the 27 seasons the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have been playing has one of the teams had a six-game winning streak in the series.
But one of the players taking part in Sunday’s meeting between the two does.
Steelers defensive lineman Chris Wormley presumably is the only player in the history of Steelers-Ravens who appeared in all of the teams’ matchups with each other over a three-season span … and won them all.
Wormley spent his first three seasons with the Ravens before a March 2020 trade to the Steelers.
“It’s been a good stretch the last two years,” Wormley said this week, referencing the Steelers’ sweeps of Baltimore during the 2020 and ’21 seasons. “But it’s always fun to play a team that you used to play for, and I am looking forward to that opportunity again.”
So is Miles Boykin, whom the Ravens waived — and the Steelers subsequently claimed — in April. The wide receiver was a third-round pick by Baltimore in 2019. With Sunday’s game being his first against his former team, will it be a weird experience for Boykin?
“Weird? No,” the special-teams specialist said. “Maybe just playing against everybody I used to see every day (will be). But definitely excited to get a chance to go up against them, but at the same time I can’t let my emotions cloud the job I have to do in the game. I have to go out there and do my job.”
The Steelers have done a good job against the Ravens over their past four meetings, and a win Sunday would match the longest winning streak for either team over the 56-game series (including four playoff matchups). The Steelers twice previously won five in a row against Baltimore (from 1997-99 and 2001-03).
Robert Spillane on the Ravens’ offense not changing regardless of the starting QB pic.twitter.com/fAikBjDX35
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 8, 2022
Some recent almost-streaks in the series, though, involve backup quarterbacks. The Ravens have won 10 of the past 11 games against the Steelers when anyone other than Ben Roethlisberger has started at quarterback. That’s relevant, of course, because Roethlisberger is retired and rookie Kenny Pickett is starting Sunday.
Likewise, the Steelers have won six of the past seven in the series when someone other than Lamar Jackson starts at quarterback for the Ravens. On the injury report, Jackson is listed as doubtful for Sunday, and Tyler Huntley almost assuredly will start.
“It looks like it’s going to be Tyler on Sunday,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said after Friday’s practice.
The last time Tyler Huntley started an NFL game, he faced the #Steelers in the final week of the 2021 season.
Huntley will draw the same opponent but at a different venue when he is expected to replace Lamar Jackson at QB for the #Ravens on Sunday.https://t.co/tWqNVw1yYZ
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 6, 2022
“There’s only one Lamar,” Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of the 2019 NFL MVP, “and so to compare (Huntley) to Lamar is probably not fair. But I think he runs the ball well. He can escape. He does all the things that you want your quarterback to do. I think just dealing with Lamar, he’s a little bit different guy. But I have a lot of respect for Huntley.”
An undrafted player in 2020, Huntley has made four career starts, half as many as Pickett, who was a first-round pick 7 ½ months ago. Huntley had an abysmal 37.2 passer rating in last season’s finale against the Steelers, who won in overtime. But he was better in his first meaningful action of this season, completing 27 of 32 passes for 187 yards and engineering a 91-yard winning drive during a 10-9 victory against the Denver Broncos last week.
“When you have a guy like Huntley who’s been there a couple years, he can still do some things,” Wormley said. “But I think it’s going to be hard to replace someone like Lamar.”
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