STEELERS BLACK -N- GOLD POST A Pittsburgh Steelers Blog from the heart of Steelers Nation.

by Ramona Dye

Trash-talking, big games, crushing hits, games with playoff implications -- all of these factors have helped in making Steelers-Ravens into one of the fiercest rivalries in the NFL.

Most times, team rivalries fuels fans. Yet, the rivalry between the Baltimore Ratbirds and Baltimore Ratbirds pushes the players to the extreme.

"The coaches hate each other, the players hate each other... There's no calling each other after the game and inviting each other out to dinner. But the feeling's mutual, they don't like us, and we don't like them. There's no need to hide it, they know it, and we know it. It's going to be one of those black and blue games." -- Steelers WR Hines Ward

The Beginning of a Rivalry

Art Modell moved his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore at the end of the 1995 season. This move caused legal action between the City of Cleveland and the NFL. This action resulted with the City of Cleveland retaining the Browns' name, colors, uniform design, franchise records, franchise history Browns club records and connections with Pro Football Hall of Fame players. Also, the City would get a new team regarded as the "reactivated" Cleveland Browns to begin play for the 1999 season.

Modell's Baltimore team, while retaining all current player contracts, would officially be the expansion team, a "new franchise" named the Baltimore Ravens.

Even with all of the changes our Steelers still remembered the Browns-Steelers rivalry. It was reason enough for the us Steeler fans to want to beat them. We still held a resentment towards Art Modell for ending Pittsburgh's greatest division rivalry. 

You could tell our Steelers and the Ravens did not like each other by the way in which most plays ended. The nasty bone crushing hits could have faded away but instead it has become more intense.

When Steelers management snubbed one-time Steelers Rod Woodson after he expressed interest in returning to the Steelers from the 49ers, Woodson signed with the Ravens. The 2009 Hall of Fame Enshrinee would go on to pick apart the Steelers front office claiming they allowed too many talented players to go to other teams instead of making any effort to keep them.

Our Steelers had missed the playoffs three years in a row while at the same time, the Ravens were building their own identity as a physical, hard hitting football team. Most of us could see that Ratbirds were trying to copy our success formula of the 1970's Steel Curtain defense. 

Our Steelers suffered a shutout loss to the Ravens with the opening game in the 2000 season. After the game, the Ravens' tight end Shannon Sharpe commented, "The Steelers have some real problems that they need to have addressed. That's probably the worst in my 11 years I've seen a Steelers team look. And I'm sure Bill Cowher is very disappointed, because they've got a lot of internal turmoil."

After the second game that season in which our Steelers won 9-6, passed the Ratbirds for second place in the AFC Central and ruined the Ravens streak of games without a touchdown to five, a seething Cowher had a request for the reporters, "Can you guys please go tell Shannon Sharpe that our problems here are fine? And I appreciate his concern after the first game about all the internal problems we had. Tell him we're fine. Thanks."

Our Steelers finished the season with a winning record, falling short of the playoffs. Yet, for the first time in a few years, they seemed to be getting back to Steelers football.

Lacking an offense, the Ratbirds rode on the backs of a defense that allowed the fewest points in NFL history for a 16-game season. Our rivals continued their dominance all the way to a win over the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.

2001: A Rivalry Grows

The championship talk created even more fuel for the rivalry. Was the Ravens defense the best ever, even better than our Steel Curtain defense of the 70's? And what would happen in the 2001 season?

When the Ravens came to Pittsburgh in November, the Steelers felt they had to prove something to the defending champions. Steelers players believed their defense was ever bit as good as the Ravens. This game was suppose to settle the score but our Steelers suffered a 13-10 loss.

After the game, linebacker Joey Porter stoked the rivalry more when he said, "They won the game, but they definitely know how good our defense is." 

Trash-talking from both side filled the week leading up to the 2001 rematch in Baltimore. The AFC Central title hung  in the balance that Sunday night and ESPN used every audio clip they could find to fuel this rematch.

The players continued to trash-talk, Our own Plaxico Burress proclaimed that the Steelers had "physically beat" the Ravens in the earlier game that season to which Shannon Sharpe replied, "If Hines Ward would have said that, as physical as he plays the game, OK, I could lend some credence to that. But 'Plexiglass? No."

There were rumors that the dirty Ratbirds had placed a bounty on our Steelers' top two receivers, pooling money to give as a reward to the defender who was able to knock out either Burress or Ward from the game. NFL policy forbids such cash rewards, though no proof materialized that the bounty was nothing more than talk .

Tony Siragusa, then the Ravens defensive tackle dared Steelers fans to follow him into a bathroom after the game, to which Steelers defensive back Lee Flowers responded, "We don't have no wimpy fans. Make sure his big butt shows up on the field Sunday."

The 2001 rematch game did not disappoint as the game turned into a hard-hitting physical battle with much trash-talking during the game. The game turning play happened when Kordell Stewart threw a 90-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Shaw after a Ravens punt had put our Steelers deep into our own territory.  

Our Steelers won the contest 26-21 to clinch the AFC Central division title. The win gave our Steelers our fifth consecutive win in Baltimore.

The win had our Steelers going to the playoffs for the first time since 1997 but our battle with the Ratbirds was far from over. The Ravens made it back to the wild card playoffs for the second time in two years. Baltimore linebacker Jamie Sharper had a warning specifically for the Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. "Everybody said they're the best team... We'll see. If the Bus is smart, he won't play."

Bettis did not play in the game due to a mishap of a painkiller shot into his leg which hit a nerve leaving his leg numb. But our Steelers defense prevailed, keeping the Ravens offense to under 150 yards and only 20 minutes of possession in the Ravens first playoff loss in their history. Sharpe admitted that at times the Steelers were a better team.

Although the 2001 season was over for both teams, the deep seeded rivalry had taken hold for good, among players and fans alike. It now seemed natural for the teams to remain rivals under the 2002 realignment into four-team divisions.

The Steelers-Ravens games have become synonymous with hard-hitting, physical, trash-talking football, to the point where NFL fans outside of the AFC North look forward to watching the games.

2008: Rivalry Review

In 2008, our Steelers and the Ravens boasted #1 and #2 defenses. Although our Steelers sometimes struggled to keep drives going, our Steelers defense looked to be Super Bowl-worthy, impressively outpacing the rest of the NFL in allowing the fewest yards per play. While the Ravens had found their franchise quarterback in Joe Flacco who made Baltimore, Super Bowl contenders again.

Only one of these two teams could possibly move on to the Super Bowl.

Our Steelers won both regular season games. The Ravens controlled much of the game at Heinz Field holding a 13-3 lead through the third quarter. Big Ben would thread a touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes on a third and long. Linebackers Lamar Woodley and James Harrison forced a fumble from Flacco that would be returned for a touchdown putting the Steelers ahead. Our Steelers would win the game with a Jeff Reed field goal in overtime.

During the Week 15 rematch at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens clung to a 9-6 lead with the Steelers four yards away from a winning touchdown. Our Steelers had driven from their own 8 yard line and now faced a third and goal with about 50 seconds left on the clock. Roethlisberger scrambled almost to the left sideline and then back to the middle before finding Santonio Holmes standing just inside the end zone. Holmes caught the ball but the Ravens defense forced him to lunge back onto the field of play as he caught the ball.

On the field, the officials ruled that Holmes had caught the ball just outside of the end zone, which would have set up a fourth and inches play with everything on the line. However, the replay booth official called for a review of the play. Referee Walt Coleman reversed the call, signaling a Steelers touchdown!

Ravens fans could not believe the call.  Later, the NFL would review the play and rule that it had been a correct call, that Holmes had possessed the ball inside of the end zone with about three inches. Those three inches clinched the AFC North title for our Steelers and forced the Ravens to win the remaining two games in order to make the playoffs as a wild card team. The Ravens ripped up their next four opponents, defeating the top-seeded Titans in their own stadium to advance to the AFC Championship.

Our Steelers and the Ravens were on yet another collision course for the biggest game in the history of their rivalry, the first all-AFC North AFC Conference championship.

"Us and the Ravens. It'd be a big game if it was only a scrimmage. It just happens to be the AFC Championship Game. -- Mike Tomlin, Steelers Head Coach

Our Steelers would go on to win the AFC Championship and send the Ratbirds back to Baltimore. A sweep in the regular season and beating them again in the playoffs to dash their dreams. Advancing to the 2009 Super Bowl our Steelers went on to win our sixth Lombardi.

Listed are a few of the highlights over the years.

• Steelers WR Plaxico Burress and Ravens CB James Trapp were ejected from a game in 2002 for fighting.
•  In 2003, the Steelers' Joey Porter, sidelined from Pittsburgh's season opener against the Ravens because of wounds he suffered in a random  shooting spree in Denver, angrily confronted the Ravens' Ray Lewis after the game because he believed Lewis was mocking Porter's sack celebration, "the Boot."
• Baltimore hosted Pittsburgh in the final regular-season game of the 2003 season, on the face of it a meaningless game because the Ravens had already clinched their playoff position and the Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs. But the Ratbirds starters remained on the field for the entire game, a 13-10 overtime win for Baltimore. As he did with many times, Joey Porter voiced his opinion on Brian Billick's handling of the game: "A smart coach, you don't play your players that long in a regular-season game that has no meaning. And he played them all the way to the end in overtime, just to beat us. That lets you know how serious the rivalry is." The Ravens' win did mark the end of the Steelers' six-game winning streak in Baltimore, and the Steelers would not win at M&T Bank Stadium again for five years. At the same time, it likely improved the Steelers' draft position enough for them to select QB Ben Roethlisberger in the 2004 NFL draft.
• In 2004, the Ravens were the only team to beat the Steelers in their 15-1 regular season. 
• Joey Porter again drew the anger of the Ravens during a 2004 game when he pushed Baltimore TE Todd Heap to the ground after Heap had clearly been injured on the previous play.
• In three consecutive contests from 2004-2005, the Ravens knocked the Steelers starting quarterback out of the game.
• The Ravens sacked Ben Roethlisberger 14 times in   two routs of the Steelers by a combined score of 58-7 during the 2006 season, including a late-season win in Pittsburgh that killed the defending champion Steelers' chance to return to the playoffs.
• In 2007, the Steelers commemorated their 75th season in the NFL at a Monday night game against the Ravens that ended up being a 38-7 blowout. On a running play just before halftime, Hines Ward delivered a crushing block to Ed Reed that sent the Ravens cornerback to the ground in a heap. Ward began motioning for the trainers to come on the field while the play was still ongoing, and ESPN's cameras caught footage of QB Terry Bradshaw and other Pittsburgh legends on the sideline cringing at the force of Ward's block.
• When Steelers 2008 first-round draft pick Rashard   Mendenhall learned he would get his first start at RB against Baltimore on Monday Night Football, he sent a text message to his friend Ray Rice, a rookie running back for the Ravens, predicting that he would have "a big game." Rice shared the text with his teammates on the Ravens defense, who prided themselves in the fact that they had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in over 20 games. Quote LB Bart Scott, "Thanks for the bulletin-board material, rookie." In a contest that was injury-filled for both sides, Mendenhall was knocked out of the game with a fractured shoulder on a hit by Ray Lewis in the third  quarter; Mendenhall had gained 30 yards on the day. A few weeks later, Ravens LB Terrell Suggs invited controversy when he told a sports talk radio host that "the bounty was out on [Mendenhall] and the bounty was out on Hines. We just didn't get him between the whistles." Suggs later provided a clarification, saying "There wasn't any bounty." This not being his first  experience with the situation. Ward told ESPN that he considered the Ravens talk of a bounty on him "a big honor," but added that "all I have to say to Mr. Suggs is that there's an NFL policy he should read."

Steelers vs. Ravens: The all-time stats

• 18-10 overall
• 11-4 at Pittsburgh
• 7-6 at Baltimore
• 2-0 in playoffs

SWEEPS

Pittsburgh has 4 sweeps-

1997 (Pitt 42, Bal 34)        2002 (Pitt 31, Bal 18)

          (Pitt 37, Bal 00)                 (Pitt 34, Bal 31)

1998 (Pitt 20, Bal 13)        2008 (Pitt 23, Bal 20) OT

          (Pitt 16, Bal 13)                 (Pitt 13, Bal 09)

                                                      (Pitt 23, Bal 14)

Baltimore has 1          2006

                             (Bal 27, Pitt 00)

                             (Bal 31, Pitt 07)   

Longest Streak

Pittsburgh:

        1997                              2001              

( PIT 42, BAL 34)        (PIT 26, BAL 21)    

( PIT 37, BAL 20)        (PIT 27, BAL 10)         

        1998                             2002         

( PIT 20, BAL 13)        (PIT 31, BAL 18)

( PIT 16, BAL 13)        (PIT 34, BAL 31)             

        1999                             2003

(PIT 23, BAL 20)         (PIT 34, BAL 15)

Baltimore:

           2005

( BAL 16, PIT 13) OT

           2006

( BAL 27, PIT 0)

( BAL 31, PIT 7)

As Always, Here We Go!