Can Ravens Fans Set Their Regional Bias Aside For A Weekend?

Aside from throwing money at overpriced free agents, Redskins owner Dan Snyder is practically the Peter Angelos of Washington, D.C.

With the Ravens enjoying their bye week, many of their fans can also take a brief respite from worrying about their own team’s issues and instead focus on other games around the league. One of those games involves two teams that Baltimore has historically loved to hate.

It’s no secret that the rivalry between the Ravens and Steelers is the most high profile matchup in professional football today. While these teams meet at least twice per season, the second best rivalry for the Baltimore/Washington region only happens once out of every four.

The Ravens and Redskins rivalry is partly grounded in socioeconomic differences, disdain for the Paul Tagliabue/Jack Kent Cooke connectivity and undermining of Charm City’s expansion efforts and Baltimore’s slight inferiority complex when it comes to their southern neighbors.

Sure, the Redskins typically feast off of rejected Ravens players (see: Billy Cundiff, Casey Rabach, Graham Gano, Chris Chester, Josh Wilson etc.) and perhaps therein lies some twisted boost of pride for Baltimoreans. But at the core of the Battle of the Beltways is the fact that wherever you go, the fan bases collide and clash given the close range between home cities.

On Sunday, the Redskins travel to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in an attempt to get back to a .500 record. Meanwhile the Steelers, shamed enough by those atrocious 1934 bumble bee throwback uniforms, will try to avoid further embarrassment by dropping to 3-4 before their hometown fans.

Ravens fans will probably be wishing for a tie but should at least put their regional bias aside for one weekend in order to look at the bigger picture.

Regardless of what the Steelers do this weekend (Cincinnati has a bye as well), the Ravens will have no worse than a one-game lead in the AFC North. It’s all too evident the Ravens need all the help they can get so having the Steelers lose this weekend would bode well for a team that faces some uncertainty moving forward.

Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III is a major threat and doesn’t appear (yet) to be the draft day bust many fans in Baltimore were hoping for. Unlike Joe Flacco, RGIII has put up major stats but hasn’t been able to translate them into wins.

It’s in the best interest of the Maryland/Washington, D.C. area to have the Redskins win this weekend and let the two teams battle it out in their once-every-election-year regional bragging rights rivalry.

So far, the Ravens v. Redskins faceoff has been anything but a rivalry as the Ravens have won three of the four total games played. Many thought history would easily repeat itself after the season the Ravens had last year and the Redskins once again in a rebuilding mode.  But given the way the Ravens have played as of late, nothing can be deemed “easy.”

Utilize this weekend as a time to call up your friendly neighborhood Redskins fans and watch the game together. They’ll get another opportunity to watch a game with you in six-weeks, but chances are, only one of you will be happy when a touchdown is scored.

For this week, Hail To The Redskins because the Ravens definitely don’t need any “must win” games against the Steelers when they play them twice within a span of two weeks beginning November 18.