Baltimore Beatdown
Welcome back to another edition of 5 Questions, a weekly collaboration with other SB Nation sites to preview the Ravens’ upcoming matchups. This week, the Ravens are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, so Ryland Bickley of Behind The Steel Curtain on hand to answer Baltimore Beatdown’s questions about Week 18.
1. One perception of the Steelers is that Mike Tomlin keeps the team good enough for winning seasons, but their quarterback issues catch up to them in the playoffs. That keeps Pittsburgh from getting a high enough draft pick to get a young franchise QB. How valid is that perception?
That’s a valid perception. Where the debate tends to lie among Steeler fans is whether Tomlin is more responsible for the always winning part or the not winning enough part.
It’s a nuanced topic; I’ve written and read plenty of articles about it. Ultimately, Tomlin’s ability to keep his teams out of the gutter is nothing short of impressive. We see a lot of teams “tank” and never find their way back to relevance. Not Pittsburgh. Even in the frustrations of recent seasons, the team hasn’t always looked too far off from being an actual contender, and there’s an argument to be made Tomlin is just a franchise quarterback away from regaining his status as one of the league’s top coaches — of course, the irony being his teams have been too good to land one in recent seasons.
That said, I’m of the opinion that the Tomlin way has grown a bit stale in Pittsburgh, especially regarding his assistant coach hirings. But I’d still take him before well over half of the current head coaches in the NFL. However, when the team hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016-17 season and keeps falling into the same ruts, it has to fall on the shoulders of the head coach eventually.
2. Why does the Steelers run defense struggle so much against the Ravens while generally dominating other opponents?
Some of it is probably that the Ravens know this Steelers defense well. However, the addition of Derrick Henry to the Baltimore backfield has given the Ravens two elite rushing threats — often going in opposite directions in a zone read — that has put far more stress on the Steelers’ usual strategy. That’s been the biggest difference maker.
However, there could probably be some more context with that stat. While Pittsburgh has certainly struggled with the Ravens’ rushing attack in the last three matchups, those were during bad run defense stretches for the team in general. Now, rookie defensive tackle Derrick Harmon is coming into his own and the defense has smoothed out a lot of the problems that plagued it earlier in the season. That’s not to say the Henry/Jackson combination won’t be a problem once again, but the Pittsburgh defense is definitely in a better spot this time around.
3. With D.K. Metcalf out, how will Arthur Smith keep the Steelers’ pass game humming?
Without Metcalf last week...
