Two rivals going in opposite directions will clash in the postseason for the first time in a decade.
Winners of four straight games by multiple scores to clinch their second straight AFC North championship, the red-hot Ravens will host struggling Pittsburgh in the wild-card round at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday night. The game will be streamed live at 8 p.m. on Amazon Prime Video.
The Ravens and Steelers split the regular-season series with each winning at home, but John Harbaugh’s team has looked like the more serious Super Bowl contender since coming off the Week 14 bye when Pittsburgh held a two-game lead in the division. In contrast, Mike Tomlin’s team has lost its last four games, which included a Week 16 defeat in Baltimore and Saturday’s home loss to Cincinnati that dropped the Steelers to the sixth seed in the AFC and set up a rubber match with the Ravens.
Prior to that Week 16 game, Pittsburgh had won eight of the previous nine meetings in this rivalry, but two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson had played in just four of those games. Jackson threw three touchdowns to outplay Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson in that 34-17 victory on Dec. 21.
This marks the fifth postseason matchup between these foes, but it will be the first one played in Baltimore. The Steelers own a 3-1 postseason advantage, but the Ravens won the last playoff meeting, a 30-17 final in the 2014 wild-card round. Pittsburgh’s playoff wins over Baltimore came in 2001, 2008, and 2010.