NORTH BOWL

Steelers, Ravens renew their epic divisional rivalry

CONSIDER this the Steelers’ last stand. They will take their 5-5-1 record into Sunday’s home game against the Ravens, who are 8-3 and at the top of the AFC North. A Ravens win not only would further distance them from the rest of the division, but also would put a dagger through the hearts of their rivals in black and gold.

A Steelers loss with five games remaining would be debilitating. As it is, they’re coming off a 41-10 hammering at the hands of the Bengals last Sunday, and things have gotten nasty in Pittsburgh of late, with former Steelers’ stars Rocky Bleier and Ryan Clark publicly unloading on the team.

Bleier, a running back in the 1970s, delivered his body blows on his Instagram account, writing: “The Steelers suck. What I can’t understand is why? It’s not that losing bothers me as much as lack of pride or self-esteem. How do you give up 82 points in the last two games?

“Big Ben [Roethlisberger] said after the game that ‘It is what it is, it happens sometimes. We need to play better.’ My reaction? No s--t. So why don’t you play better?”

Clark, the former Steelers safety who now works as an analyst on ESPN, lit into his former team on the air, saying: “They’re not my beloved Steelers anymore. Nobody’s scared to play this team. There’s absolutely no physicality. There’s no energy defensively. There’s no tone-setters.’’

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who has spoiled the Pittsburgh fans with the run of success he has overseen, tried to push a motivational button this week when he had his players practice in full pads on Wednesday, a rarity in the NFL these days.

Making matters more complicated is that the Steelers have been dealing with COVID-19 issues this week. After playing the first nine weeks of the season without placing a single player on the COVID-19 list, linebackers T.J. Watt and Robert Spillane as well as backup offensive lineman Joe Haeg landed there this week.

Spillane and Haeg will miss the game unless they test negative twice in a 24-hour period beforehand. Watt was activated Saturday.

Regardless of how the Steelers are struggling, though, the Ravens this week made clear their respect for the Steelers, and particularly Roethlisberger, —the 6-foot-5, 240-pound quarterback, who has struggled. “He’s still Ben Roethlisberger,” Ravens linebacker Tyus Bowser said during the week. “He’s still that Hall of Fame, great guy, and you have to respect that. Regardless of what people say, of how he’s been playing, whether it’s good or bad, he’s still Ben Roethlisberger, and he can still go out there and make plays. So, we respect that guy, and we’re not going to look at him any other type of way [than] besides who he is.’’

The 39-year-old Roethlisberger has a 15-10 career record against the Ravens.

“We’ve played him more than anybody else, probably, over the years,’’ Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s made plays that were just jaw-dropping plays against us. You guys have seen them — the throws he’s made, the scramble plays he’s made, the red-zone plays he’s made going out to his left and finding somebody — those are all indelibly marked in my brain, as you can probably tell.

“He is getting it out quick, and he is very accurate.”

Roethlisberger’s numbers are respectable this season: a 64.6 percent completion rate, for 2,522 yards with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions. Yet that hasn’t translated into enough wins.

Last week, in the blowout loss to the Bengals, Roethlisberger completed 24 of 41 passes for 263 yards and two INTs, one of which was returned for a TD.

The Ravens, like the Steelers, are coming off a spotty performance. The difference is they found a way to beat the Browns, 16-10, though quarterback Lamar Jackson was intercepted four times. Afterward, Jackson said he “played like a rookie.’’

“We just do what we need to do, just play football,” Jackson, who is 0-2 in his career versus the Steelers as a starter, said of the offensive struggles. “Whatever call is called, we just need to do us. And it’ll start back soon. It needs to, right away. Hopefully, this week, it starts.”