The Steelers will be without QB Ben Roethlisberger and RB Willie Parker, but Pittsburgh's defense should still help them across the line with a win and cover vs. the Ravens.
Pittsburgh players and coaches have indicated that they’ll play this as a pretty normal game rather than resting their starters before the playoffs.
However, Ben Roethlisberger will not play this game in order to lessen his chances of getting injured. Charlie Batch is a more than capable backup and new top back Najeh Davenport (5.0 ypr this season and 4.7 ypr in his career) could be an upgrade over injured starter Willie Parker (4.1 ypr this season).
Baltimore will go with Troy Smith at quarterback for a second straight start and Smith has been better than the Ravens’ other two quarterbacks in his limited duty so far this season. Smith has averaged 5.4 yards per pass play on 50 pass plays against teams that would allow 5.8 yppp to an average quarterback and I see no reason why Smith can’t continue to top the bad numbers of Steve McNair and Kyle Boller. Posting good numbers against Pittsburgh’s defense, however, is not likely since the Steelers have the best pass defense in the league this year. Baltimore will struggle running the ball too with top back Willis McGahee injured.
My math model favors Pittsburgh by 6½ points and they’re talking like they want to beat up on their hated division rival and perhaps gain the #3 seed in the AFC playoffs in the process (although they’d also need the Chargers to lose to Oakland). Prediction: Pittsburgh-21, Balitmore-14
Free Pick: Steelers -3 (-110)
© Copyright 2007. Reprinted with permission of the author.