Richard Bradshaw makes his pick:
The Baltimore Ravens are resting Lamar Jackson as well as a plethora of other key starters this week vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a luxury the team can afford after locking up the top-seed in the playoffs. Still, I feel positive in taking the Ravens to win this game and end the 2019 season with a 14-2 record.
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All eyes will be on Robert Griffin III in this matchup, as we’ll be curious to see how he can run this offense as the man in charge. There’s no reason to believe that the unit will be as explosive as they are when Jackson is under center, and Griffin will be without some major contributors like Marquise Brown, Mark Ingram, and Mark Andrews. It will still be fun to what the offense looks like with RGIII in charge.
The Steelers defense is a good unit, and without its major contributors, it seems likely that the Ravens second-team offense will stutter at times. If we flip the script, things could get ugly.
Pittsburgh’s offense has been terrible in 2019 thanks to injuries and inefficient quarterback play. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s defense has been getting better with each passing week. The Ravens offense may not put up a ton of points, but it seems even less likely that the Steelers offense can conjure up anything.
This will be an ugly game, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Pittsburgh Steelers can do anything noteworthy in its most important game of the year, even with the Baltimore Ravens pulling punches.
Bold prediction: Ravens defense records five sacks, forces three turnovers
Score prediction: Ravens 20 Steelers 7