Steelers Legend Wants to Avoid Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens are a team no one wants to face right now.

Dec 5, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) against the Baltimore Ravens during the fourth quarter at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images / Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images

With the playoffs just around the corner, the Baltimore Ravens seem to be peaking at the perfect time.

Since returning from their Week 14 bye, the Ravens have won each of their three games by at least 17 points. The offense is continuing to produce as expected, but the defense, which was a liability earlier in the season, has engineered an impressive mid-season turnaround and is now playing like one of the best units in football.

Very few teams want to play a Ravens squad firing on all cylinders, even one of their longtime rivals. On his "Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger" podcast, the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback revealed that he'd prefer his former team to avoid Baltimore in the wild card round.

"You do not want to go play in Baltimore right now, with two MVP candidates in Lamar [Jackson] and [Derrick] Henry," Roethlisberger said. "And that defense in Baltimore is starting to play. They were their Achilles heel earlier in the season; now they're playing much better football.

"I'm telling you right now, the way Baltimore's playing, you don't want that."

It's quite funny to hear this statement coming out of Pittsburgh, because it might've been exactly the opposite a few weeks ago. The Steelers had won eight of the past nine games in the series, until the Ravens finally slayed the dragon in a 34-17 victory at home.

The only way this matchup can occur in the wild card round is if the Steelers lose to the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Chargers defeat the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 18. This would result in the Ravens clinching the AFC North and the No. 3 seed (regardless of what happens in their game against the Cleveland Browns), while Pittsburgh would fall to the No. 6 seed. No doubt about it, M&T Bank Stadium would be rocking for that game.

Roethlisberger added that he believes the Houston Texans, who are locked into the No. 4 seed as AFC South champions, would be a more favorable matchup for the Steelers. The Texans are very injured and have had a disappointing season in general, with their 31-2 loss to the Ravens on Christmas Day seemingly being rock bottom. Pittsburgh and Houston did not play in the regular season.

As always, though, wanting to play certain teams over others is really more of an outside perspective. The players and coaches know they have to beat who's in front of them, so there's not much use in sweating specific matchups.

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