Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and NFL writer Charles McDonald look ahead to Saturday’s AFC North battle between Pittsburgh and Baltimore – including how the Steelers will fare without wide receiver George Pickens. Hear the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
This is the Ahu fight of the week.
It’s Steelers Ravens.
George Pickens is almost certainly gonna be out.
I believe he is out for sure he’s for sure claimed out, yeah, hamstring, done.
What are some of your thoughts, the Pickens list Steelers attack against this Ravens defense?
Good luck.
And it’s not really because You know, Baltimore’s defense has definitely improved as teams gone along, but they’re still like like slightly above average.
They’re not the worst defense in the world anymore like they were for sure at the start of the season.
We just watched the Steelers offense without George Pickens.
We know what happened in the second half.
They got stomped out so bad they didn’t even have the ball hardly.
We know running the ball is going to be tough against the Ravens defense.
They’ve been one of the best Russian defenses in football all year, um.
Even with Pickens on the field, the Steelers have struggled to consistently run the ball.
We know the passing game is constricted because they just don’t have the personnel for it.
Like Pickens going down it’s just, it’s a catastrophic loss for them, and they don’t run the ball well, so I don’t really understand where the points are supposed to come from with the yards.
I, I was just trying to find some angle, like some to be like, OK, they could pick at this, and that’s what we can build a little narrative here for the show.
But the problem is they become the most run-heavy team in the NFL when Pickens is not on the field.
They have a 61.5% run rate when George Pickens is not on the field.
The league average is 40%.
The Steelers without pickings are at 61, 2/3 of the time, basically, they are going to be running the ball, and it’s because they know what they got.
It’s because they know this is how they have to make it ugly and hope they pop one, but the thing is they lose explosive, you know, just the threat of the explosive pass, that makes the run game just tight.
OK, so if they’re gonna be one dimensional and run the ball, you know, 3 out of 5 times.
All right, what does this mean against the Ravens?
Well, like you said, Ravens run defense is very good.
That has been sustainable for this Ravens team.
I, I just can’t find a thread for them to pull out, and it’s just got, they gotta work some Tomlin magic and hope Ross hits like Mike Williams or something, just something where they just get some miracle touchdown, uh, you know, out of it because that’s just how they have to win.
