Week 9 NFL Expert Predictions: Pittsburgh At Baltimore

The NFL has several great rivalries that we all look forward to when they come around on the schedule each year. If you are a fan of hard hitting football with a touch of hate added in for good measure, then you will love when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens lock horns. It’s natural for division rivals to not get along, but these two teams legitimately hate one another. It looked as though a little bit of the luster may have been taken off this one with the injury to Ben Roethlisberger, but reports have him taking all the snaps in practice, which suggests he is going to be out there on Sunday afternoon. The Steelers will absolutely want him out there, as this is an opportunity for them to take a stranglehold on the AFC North, with both the Ravens and Bengals struggling through the first half of the season. This one is off the board for now, but that may change when Roethlisberger’s status is updated.

A Closer Look At The Week 9 NFL Expert Predictions: Steelers At Ravens

When: Sunday, November 6 at 1 PM EST Where: M&T Banks Stadium, Baltimore TV: CBS Live Stream: CBS Sports Network NFL Odds: TBA    

Why bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers

To say that the success of the Steelers depends on who is under center is putting things rather mildly. Landry Jones looks set to be a career back-up, and while he was efficient enough in the loss to the Patriots, but he does not have the accuracy or game changing ability that Roethlisberger brings to the table. If Big Ben does start, it’s going to be interesting to see how much he moves around in the pocket. I would expect that we will see a healthy dose of Le’Veon Bell in the early going as the Steelers try to establish the run game. The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost 3 straight games to the Ravens, and are 4-4-2 ATS against them in the last 10 meetings.

Why bet on the Baltimore Ravens

After their last Super Bowl win, the Ravens backed up the money truck and dumped it at the feet of QB Joe Flacco. He has certainly been earning his paycheck this season, as the offense is all on him. Baltimore has struggled to run the ball all year, and have now fallen to 4-straight losses. The low point came last week in a loss to the New York Jets where they only managed 6 yards on 12 running attempts. Flacco needs some help, but he is not likely to get it this weekend against a Steelers defense that has been stingy against the run. A loss here would drop Baltimore to 3-5, and would make the road to the playoffs damn near impossible to navigate.  

Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction

It’s tough to make a pick here without knowing the status of Ben Roethlisberger. Given his history of returning from injury, I believe that he will be out there on Sunday, although perhaps not right from the start. If he plays, the Steelers win.

Pittsburgh Steelers 24 Baltimore Ravens 17