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In the earliest of early odds, the Ravens are major underdogs against the Pittsburgh Steelers, despite playing the game at home. Our friends over at BookMaker have set the line at 10 points, and with the Ravens being the home team, it's essentially 13. Given the way the last two weeks have gone for the Ravens and the opposite happening for the Steelers, most fans will likely be shocked that the line isn't much further apart.
Sunday marked the second 20+ point loss to an opponent this season with the only other one coming the week prior against the Seattle Seahawks. Before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore had kept every game close with each matchup being decided by 8 or fewer points. The increase in talent with their opposition as well as the continuing injuries for the Baltimore Ravens are seeing them slink down even further in a lost season.
The Steelers on the other hand just put up 34 points against the league's best pass defense in the Denver Broncos, most of them coming in the second half alone. The week before, they scored 33 points against the Cincinnati Bengals, the league's top defense with only 15.1 points allowed per game when the two met in week 13. Against the Ravens 25th ranked defense, giving up 25.7 points per game, this might be a slaughter.
The thing that helps save the Ravens is that the Steelers defense is very mediocre this season. They give up the second most passing yards per game with 279.1 and the 11th most points with 20.5. With the team going for broke in these final few games, there is a chance that the Ravens can keep the score closer than expected.
I'd have to imagine most people will be heavily picking on Pittsburgh early on, knocking the line much further up as the week progresses. Of course, another injury for the Ravens would do the same thing, so stay tuned this week as we update the lines, and the over/under.