Ravens Insider: It’s Ravens Week for the Steelers — and it comes at a brutal time for a bewildered run defense

[ExtremeRavens]

By Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dec. 3—Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson didn’t have much fun reviewing his team’s 26-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“The film kind of made it worse,” he said Wednesday after practice. “You realize that they just did the same thing over and over again and were very successful. The caliber of players we have, the caliber of schematics we have, that shouldn’t happen.

“Obviously, it was good to watch the film, but it pissed us all off.”

If Wilson and his teammates want to change their mood as they prepare for the Ravens this weekend in a huge AFC North clash, pivoting to the tape from their last matchup won’t lift their spirits at all.

Despite the caliber of talent and all those schematics, the 249 rushing yards they allowed to Buffalo actually pales in comparison to the 299 they gave up in last season’s playoff rout in Baltimore. That 28-14 drubbing was the last shovel of dirt on the five-game skid that buried the Steelers following their hot start. Just a few weeks prior, the Ravens ran for 220 in the same stadium.

“Yeah, it sucked,” Wilson said. “Last year was obviously my rookie year. We started 10-3, so I was like, ‘Wow, the NFL is pretty fun.’ … We’re trying to not let that happen again.”

The Ravens are trying to avoid deja vu themselves. They let the Cincinnati Bengals walk into their building on Thanksgiving and deal them their first defeat since Oct. 12. Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry remain, which makes any defensive plan difficult to formulate.

For his part, Wilson played just 36% of the snaps in that wild-card game. One of the moves the Steelers made in an effort to upgrade their linebacker corps was signing Malik Harrison, who spent the past five seasons in Baltimore, where he was a third-round pick.

“That’s something I take pride in,” Harrison said. “That’s why I’m here. … That’s basically what my career has been — just being that thumper, physical player.”

None other than Vince Williams, arguably the team’s most physical inside linebacker in recent memory, took to social media during the Bills game to give his two cents. It may have gone unnoticed as other Steelers alumni are giving their 98 cents, but old No. 98 had a concise point on what’s ailing the defense.

Williams, seemingly referring to his beloved position, remarked that the young players are “very talented but not downhill.” And in his roundabout way, he questioned the loss of Elandon Roberts over offseason.

“Would have been nice to have a [Robert Spillane] in the middle tonight,” Williams posted on X. “Even an ERob.”

To be fair, Roberts played the lion’s share of the snaps over Wilson in that postseason pummeling, so it happened on his watch, too. And thus it comes back to coaching yet again with this team and this defense, no matter what Wilson or Harrison or any other players put forth.

It’s an interesting twist on the latest chapter of Steelers-Ravens, Mike Tomlin versus John Harbaugh. Both coaches need their team to respond to adversity — to put it lightly — and the fate of their seasons may well depend on it.

“Of course,” Wilson said. “It’s kind of funny, because around here, obviously the energy’s not low but we’ve lost some games we definitely shouldn’t have lost. But we still control our own destiny. We still have a chance to have home playoff games, win this division, and that’s what’s on our mind. This Sunday is one of the biggest tests for that.”

They better bring much different answers to the table this time around.

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