Steelers-Ravens
There are two weeks that are circled on the NFL schedule for both of these teams. As a matter of fact, all football fans look forward to these two weeks of the year. And if were lucky enough, there will be a third chapter to this story, as there has been two of the last three years. These games take us back to the old school, smash mouth football of the 60’s and 70’s. In the future we will look back at this historic rivalry the same way we view the old rivalries of the Steelers-Raiders and Steelers-Cowboys of the 70’s.
These teams are mirror images of each other and play defensive minded football. I’ve seen five of these matchups live and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything so violent in my entire life. It’s controlled chaos in a rowdy environment. A play that stands out in my mind was in the 2008 AFC Championship game on a freezing cold night in January when the Steelers took a 23-14 lead after Troy Polamalu’s pick 6 to the house, on the next possession Flacco threw a short pass to Willis Mcgahee across the middle and Ryan Clark put a hit on him that sent him into next week. I was sitting 60 yards from the play and I could here the sound of the most violent collision I’ve heard in my life. I swore a car crash just happened at midfield. The hit was so hard that both players were knocked out of the game.
I’ve watched countless hours of football in my young life, but nothing compares to the importance of these games. I love the respect that both of these teams portray for each other. Of course there’s always trash talk the week before the game, but it’s like it’s a promoter trying to hype up a heavyweight fight. Terrel Suggs said, “They already declared war on us, we're taking 53 men to the apocalypse and we ain't bringing flowers." It is a fight indeed, an all out street fight where the most physical team seems to always win.
There is no other matchup in the NFL where every time these teams meet that it feels like a playoff game. Mike Tomin said it best, “We don’t care if it’s a pre season game, we’re still going to go out and treat it like it’s a playoff game.” The atmosphere at these games is unheralded. It’s almost a right of passage to go to this game. You truly can’t understand the rivalry unless you are there to actually hear the sounds of the game. The raw emotion running through the players and fans together feels surreal. I’ve honestly never seen a crowd react the way it does when the Steelers need a stop in the late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter when Styx’s Renegade comes on the screen.
Is it me or does it seem like in a past lifetime that players like Polamalu, Suggs, Lewis, Harrison, Roethlisberger, and Ngata were gladiators that battled for their lives in Rome.
Since 2002, the Steelers have been swept only twice by division opponents. I wouldn’t count on a third at Heinz Field on Sunday night in front of a national audience. I’ll take the Steelers 24-16 in a hard-hitting physical game in front of a raucous crowd.
As long as these teams play in the AFC North, there will always be conflict because their goals will be unchanging. To win the AFC North, the AFC Championship, and finally the Super Bowl.
