The Steelers and the Ravens will have to wait a few more days to face each other. Here’s why their game has been postponed.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were set to take on the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night in what was promised to be one of the most-watched games of the season. However, we recently received news that this game has been postponed until Sunday afternoon (for now, at least).
According to early reports from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Ravens had at least five players and four coaches test positive for COVID-19 leading up to Wednesday, now Schefter confirms that the game has been postponed for at least another three days.
Ravens-Steelers game postponed until Sunday afternoon.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 25, 2020
This news is really quite devastating to Steelers fans, as Pittsburgh held an obvious competitive edge over their opponent this week. Mike Tomlin’s team essentially had a bye in Week 11 against the Jacksonville Jaguars as the team was able to rest their starters for much of the 4th quarter with a 24-point lead.
However, that competitive edge has practically diminished now. The way that the schedule worked out, the Ravens would have been traveling to Pittsburgh on a short week after coming off a hard-fought overtime loss against the Tennessee Titans in Week 11. Now their disadvantage is will be nothing more than playing on the road. With an extra three days to prepare, the Ravens could be pretty close to full health going into Sunday. Knowing what they have to play for, I see the line for this game shifting back towards Baltimore a bit.
Steelers were robbed again
What’s so unfortunate is that this was hardly the first time that the Steelers have been in a situation like this. Pittsburgh was set to take on the Tennessee Titans in Week 4 in a game where they were healthy. Instead, the game was postponed due to COVID-19 cases from the Titans. Now it appears the same thing is happening again.
The Steelers know they have a lot to play for in Week 12. Though they’ve essentially already locked up a playoff berth, they know the Kansas City Chiefs are nipping at their heels for a chance to reclaim the number one seed out from under them, so a divisional win against the Ravens would be huge.
Meanwhile, nobody will be playing a more important game this week than the Baltimore Ravens. As they sit on a 6-4 record, they know that dropping to 6-5 would be devastating for their playoff hopes this year. Now that the Ravens will have ample time to prepare for the Steelers and get some of their players healthy, they should stand a much better shot at winning this game than if it were played on Thanksgiving night.
At the end of the day, there isn’t anything we can do about unfortunate circumstances like this. Hopefully, the Steelers can still take care of business against the Ravens on Sunday. At least we can be thankful this season knowing how good this Pittsburgh team is.