Steelers Now
Former NFL scout John Middlekauf put into words what was already evident at M&T Bank Stadium in January. After a 28-14 AFC Wild Card playoff win that wasn’t even as close as the score suggested, the Baltimore Ravens have become Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ superior.
John Harbaugh’s team, the back-to-back AFC North champion, has reached the playoffs in six of the past seven seasons. The Ravens have more regular-season wins (54) than the Steelers (51) since 2020, but it goes much deeper than that.
“Once the Ravens moved to Baltimore and Ozzie (Newsome) and (Eric) DeCosta was with them the whole time … during the 2000s, they had really good teams,” Middlekauf said Thursday on “The Colin Cowherd Podcast.” “But they basically played the Steelers every year. They became their rival, and they copied the way they did things, like, ‘Toughness, hardcore guys, play in any environment, toughest team in the league.’
“And now, over the last decade-plus, it’s like, ‘We do it better than you. So, we had a front-row seat. … You’re our main competition in business. We know exactly how you do things, yet we’re a little more open-minded and progressive to the way we scout, coach, however. And we’ve now lapped you.’ That’s what it feels like. The Ravens are running circles around them, and, hell, the Ravens can’t even get over the hump in the playoffs, but they’re in a different universe than the Steelers.”
Part of the Ravens’ success can be attributed to hitting on Lamar Jackson, who they selected with the No. 32 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. He’s since developed into a two-time Associated Press NFL MVP. Meanwhile, the Steelers are waiting on Aaron Rodgers to choose whether he wants to play in Pittsburgh.
“It’s fascinating to me that all the people in the building in Pittsburgh and they can’t get the offensive line right, they can’t get quarterback right,” Cowherd said. “Kenny Pickett, I guess, was a swing, but it’s like, ‘It’s not that hard.'”
“If the Ravens were a little bit more of just a regular, run-of-the-mill, 10-, 11- win team, but they have just become a dominant NFL team — especially with Lamar. It has made the Steelers look a lot worse,” Middlekauf said.
Former hard-hitting Steelers safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark shared a similar sentiment as Baltimore went up by three touchdowns in the aforementioned postseason clash.
“This Ain’t no fricking rivalry,” Clark wrote on X that night. “This is big bro versus lil bro… they have their hand on our forehead & the ball over their head. We just leaning against their hand waving our hands like dummies!! Hold that, “best rivalry in football” talk til next year. Ravens Dominating”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Former NFL Scout: Ravens ‘Running Circles’ Around Steelers
