The Baltimore Ravens battle with the Steelers will happen…eventually…we think:
The Baltimore Ravens are set to play the Steelers on Wednesday afternoon. It has been announced that the game will take place at 3:40 p.m. for some unexplainable reason. In a flurry of Ravens news this week, it may be hard to keep track of everything that has been going on. This is just a quick look at how we got to where we are at the moment.
The Ravens were scheduled to play the Steelers on Thanksgiving night. That didn’t happen due to a potential Covid-19 outbreak. Well, that potential outbreak became a reality and a scheduling nightmare.
The battle with the Steelers has been postponed three times now. Thanksgiving night turned into Sunday afternoon. The Ravens were losing the primetime match up yet keeping the SNF crew calling the game on TV. Then the game got moved to Tuesday night. Well, now it’s Wednesday night.
Many people (including us at Ebony Bird) were advocating for the NFL to add the 18th week to the NFL season. The NFL doesn’t want to do that. The fact that this game is even being played this week is hard proof of that.
Week 18 was Can of Worms A. It was the can of worms that would knock back the playoffs a week and affect the entire NFL the most. The NFL has clearly been handling this on a case by case basis. That’s why each Covid-19 situation hasn’t gotten one blanket option.
League has been consistent in not wanting to go to a Week 18, so that has never seemed to be a viable option in discussing postponement plans for Ravens-Steelers which will now be on Wednesday
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) November 30, 2020
Many people were suggesting that the NFL should force the Ravens to forfeit the game. The major reason this didn’t happen is that the NFL and the NFLPA made an agreement that players could opt out before the season and that if a game was not played, nobody would get a game check. Forfeiture was Can of Worms B.
Pro Football Talk reported why the game wasn’t played on Tuesday in the following tweet.
Per source, there are new fears of Ravens players refusing to play tomorrow night, which technically would be a wildcat strike. It could create major issues between NFL and NFLPA, if it happens. Potentially, it could jeopardize the balance of the season.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) November 30, 2020
It wasn’t hard to see why Tuesday night was Can of Worms C. The Ravens still haven’t practiced, still haven’t traveled and, were in no way shape, or form ready to play Tuesday evening. It may be the bare minimum readiness for Baltimore, yet it’s the closest thing to an answer that works in a world where an 18th week wasn’t on the table. Wednesday isn’t a perfect answer but at least it’s not a breaking point.
The bottom line:
Things have mildly changed for the Ravens on the Covid-19 front. Almost all the players who were on the Covid-19 list will remain unavailable to the Ravens. The game is now going to be played on Wednesday night. Keep following this, because who knows anything anymore but this seems like a done deal.
We’ll get you ready for Wednesday. Let’s hope for everybody’s sake this is the last rescheduling of this game.