The Pittsburgh Steelers will look to upset the Baltimore Ravens on their home field as the experts don’t think it will happen.
The Steelers are coming off one of their worst performances in recent memory. They barely showed up to the Cincinnati stadium last week and it has garnered criticism from all angles. That criticism has come with fair points about this team.
Black and gold fans are used to being perfect and winning ways as they haven’t had a losing season in over a decade. That spoil seems to be coming to an end as the team faces surmounting odds in the stretch run to complete their 2021 regular-season schedule. They have one of the toughest in the NFL and they don’t seem good enough to handle it.
The defense is the biggest shocker when it comes to why this team is struggling. Everyone knew the offense would have issues along the way but this defense is playing well below what many expected to still be a top unit in the league.
Injuries and covid concerns have led to many disadvantages across the NFL and now they sit as a team looking in from the outside. Experts are starting to dislike Pittsburgh in their projections and fans should expect that from here on out. This is a struggling team that has a very small chance at making the playoffs.
They just have too many flaws and inconsistencies to defeat the opponents this week and in the coming weeks. It might get ugly for the black and gold but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The offense is stale and ineffective while the defense can’t cause turnovers and it’s a revolving door of injuries and starters missing the action.
Steelers vs. Ravens: Who the experts are taking in Week 13
The three sites used this week are cbssports.com, sportingnews.com, and nflspinzone.com. All three experts have given their opinions on this upcoming battle on Sunday with their reasoning on what score they came up with.
Some of these predictions will surprise some with what they came up with.
NFL Spin Zone
NFL Spin Zone has the Ravens winning this contest by a score of 28-21. Their mindset about this prediction is based on how the Ravens defense is so dominant against the run. Taking that away from Pittsburgh’s offense will cause them to stall and do nothing all game. That will set up Lamar Jackson to have a big game against a struggling defense.
Sporting News
Sporting News is also going with Baltimore in this one but with a closer score of 27-26. They expect the game to be closer with the Ravens turnover issues on the offensive side of the football. If Jackson continues to have turnover issues in this game then they believe the Steelers could steal a game here.
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the only expert that has the black and gold winning this game. They imagine the outcome to be 23-20 in favor of the home club. That is a bold prediction for a team that just got dismantled just a week ago. They think that the Raven’s issues on offense will carry over to this game and that will give the home squad a chance to win this game on a late-game field goal to win it.
Final Prediction: Steelers 21, Ravens 34
This is a tough game to predict because the Steelers should be all out after that embarrassing loss last week against the Bengals. Logic does say that Pittsburgh should get destroyed again but this franchise has proven resiliency in these types of moments in the past too. That was the past and this present team has not shown much resemblance to those that used to play here.
Their defense is soft and cannot get off the field when it matters most. They could be without key starters again as they play one of the toughest quarterbacks to contain. Justin Herbert ran all over this defense and Lamar Jackson is going to do even worse.
The Steeler’s offense just doesn’t do a bunch. Besides that outlier against the LA Chargers, this offense doesn’t produce enough points. Don’t expect Baltimore to only produce another 16 points in this matchup. The defense is a shell of what it used to be and has become an embarrassment.
This team will struggle to win any games down the stretch and that includes this Sunday afternoon. They will lose as Jackson and company will be able to do whatever they want against this team. The only hope is for Ben Roethlisberger to find some magic to outproduce the opposing offenses points but that seems like too steep of a hill to climb.
The Steelers are going to struggle to bring back the favor of the experts that predict these games. It was such an ugly loss in Cincinnati and that will be almost impossible to rebound from.