Baltimore Ravens officially in must-win territory vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers

The Ravens started strong but have hit an early season skid. A tough game against the 1-3 Steelers has become must win for Baltimore.

Still reeling from an embarrassing 40-25 home loss at the hands of Baker Mayfield, who’s tied for the league lead in interceptions, the Ravens find themselves in the middle of 3 straight division match ups.

With three increasingly worse defensive performances following the Week one shellacking of the Dolphins, the Ravens are in hot water entering a road tilt against the 1-3 Steelers and tougher opponents loom in the distance.

Now sitting at 2-2 with a slew of defensive concerns, Baltimore is officially in must win territory.

In the wake of Pittsburgh’s dominating 27-3 win over the Bengals, recency bias suggests the same might happen Sunday against a shoddy Ravens defense.

The Ravens’ linebackers have struggled to cover basically anything as of late. Baltimore has signed linebackers LJ Fort and Josh Bynes this week, which provides the Ravens with the veteran leadership they have been desperate for, if nothing else. Still, this may not be the fix they’re looking for but time will tell.

It appears the Steelers designed an offense specifically for Mason Rudolph to target his running backs. Of his 24 completions against the Bengals, 16 were to running backs and 18 went for 10 yards or less. This will put the Ravens linebackers to the test.

Rudolph likes to throw it deep, and has had success doing so. This does not pair well with a Baltimore secondary that has already allowed twice as many big pass plays as they did all last season.

What’s good for the Ravens is that this scheme has limited JuJu Smith-Schuster’s production. But if Pittsburgh’s offensive scheme isn’t enough, Marlon Humphrey should be.

As for more positives, the league’s best rushing offense faces a Steelers defense that ranks 11th in yards allowed per game. If the Ravens keep feeding the league’s rushing touchdown leader, Mark Ingram, they can keep their struggling defense off the field. A method that garnered much success for them last season.

If Ingram finds success on the ground, and doesn’t fumble, the door is open for Lamar Jackson to sit back and play his game. It seems that that Jackson, and this Ravens team as a whole, has tried too hard to hit the home run play and it’s cost them. I think we’d all like to see them get back to letting things come naturally and attacking the openings.

Baltimore has a chance to reclaim sole possession of the AFC North with an unpredictable Browns team facing the 49ers on Monday Night. After Pittsburgh, Baltimore faces the Bengals (0-4) twice with the Seahawks (4-1), a bye, and the Patriots (4-0) sandwiched in between.

The Baltimore Ravens will have to take the winnable games against division rivals to build momentum heading into tougher match ups against Seattle and New England.