Ravens Will Make Rivalry History vs. Steelers

They handled the Packers in a shootout between backup quarterbacks, but the Steelers also held up their end of the fortuitous bargain. They lost to the dreadful Cleveland Browns to produce this winner-take-all regular season finale, where the Ravens now have a puncher's chance of completing one of the most unlikely runs to the playoffs in the history of the team, let alone modern football.

And somehow, despite the colorful history between two usually-competitive franchises with plenty of eventful matchups to boot, such a high-stakes scenario between the Ravens and Steelers has somehow never happened until now. Next weekend will mark the first situation where the winner moves onto the playoffs and the loser goes home in the history of their rivalry.

Breaking Down Early Odds

Now, this appears to be setting up an extremely Ravens-esque scenario for a fan base that may be in for their most painful throat-punch yet. These guys have let the team down in nearly every potentially-meaningful showdown, evidenced in their 3-6 home record and two total wins against teams with winning records, neither of which were sealed by Jackson.

They've also quietly struggled with the Steelers as of late, dropping five of their last six matchups against their usually-competent foes. That most recent hiccup, a 27-22 loss in Baltimore, was a winnable game that instantly went down as evidence that things just could not go the Ravens' way as direct quotes from the NFL's rule book took centerstage over the actual gameplay.

And while Jackson's availability for this one still seems up to a coin flip, resident backup Tyler Huntley hasn't done too badly for himself during his appearances. On the other end, Aaron Rodgers hasn't exactly looked consistently fresh, even if he did have arguably his most comfortable-looking game of the season against these Ravens.

He's coming off of a 13-point outing, while the Ravens just notched 41 in trampling the once-vaunted Green Bay defense.

Now, anything can happen in a one-week sample size, as Baltimore's repeatedly reminded the fans of after years of painful playoff losses. The Steelers have nine wins to the Ravens' eight for a reason, having fumbled away fewer winnable games, but we can be sure that fireworks will emerge from this historic matchup between these legendarily-loathed rivals.