3 reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers will win in their Week 8 Matchup vs Ravens

The Ravens blitz more than any other team in the league.

With Baltimore blitzing on over 45% of their snaps they have shown the desire to get at the quarterback very fast. In particular, using defensive backs as blitzers really often is not a great game plan against this Pittsburgh Steelers offense. It is no secret by now that Ben is getting the ball out of his hands faster than any other QB in the league by taking just 2.29 seconds to throw on average. Thanks to all of the short passing concepts, sweeps, and screens that Pittsburgh is running, they are an offense designed to beat the blitz.

Furthermore, if the Ravens decide to blitz with a defensive back, they have 8 sacks on the year by all of their DB’s combined, they are forcing their other defensive backs into one on one matchups with a great route runner in Diontae Johnson, an athletic freak in Chase Claypool, and physical combat catchers in Eric Ebron and JuJu Smith-Schuster. This is not an offensive in which you don’t want safety help over the top, because both Chase Claypool and James Washington are great deep threats that will find ways to win down the field. The Ravens will likely try to get to Ben a lot in this game, and that could very well cost them big throughout this Matchup.

Even if Ben isn’t taking big shots down the field, these receivers are just so skilled with the ball in their hands. If the Ravens have to play off of them to keep the ball in front of them, then the Steelers will methodically march down the field 5 or 6 yards at a time, while chewing up the clock and keeping their defense rested. Furthermore, players like Johnson and Claypool are so dangerous with the ball in their hands that at some point they will make a man or two miss and will hit the endzone on a long catch and run.