The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Perhaps there’s mutual respect but there’s certainly mutual disdain.
The Ravens head to Pittsburgh this week, week 9 of the NFL season just as they did in 2011.
After destroying the Steelers in the season opener on September 11 in Baltimore by the score of 35-7 the Ravens traveled to western PA to take on Mike Tomlin & Co., a group hell-bent on revenge, determined to atone for the 2011 Opening Day embarrassment.
Fast forward to 2014 during the inaugural CBS broadcast of Thursday Night Football, coincidentally on September 11 when the Ravens once again handed it to the Steelers this time by the score of 26-6.
Again revenge is on the collective mind of the Steelers.
Will the results be the same as they were in 2011, when the Ravens swept the season series?
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Ok I have to admit to an affliction that I’ve had for about 16 years which at this point has no cure and it may be worsening. It’s called Football Tourette’s.
Whenever the Ravens play the Steelers the conditions are nearly perfect for the syndrome’s side effects to really rear their ugly heads. If you need a visual, think back to the movie A Christmas Story and the father’s inability to control his knee-jerk profanity when his furnace acts up.
This is why I turned down several offers to go to take in the game at various establishments around town. I didn’t want to put myself or even more so my wife in an inevitably embarrassing position.
And so I watched from home determined not to allow the relentless persistence of my FT to win. I tried and tried despite the temptations. Yet the syndrome’s will was too strong despite my determination and eventually I succumbed to its force.
The caving was akin to the Steelers’ defense when facing a force named Flacco last night in Pittsburgh.
Despite several key dropped passes and the team’s inability to get a ground attack going, Joe Flacco stood strong, confident and focused and eventually he finished off a 13 play, 92 yard drive capped by a 26 yard scoring strike to Torrey Smith with 0:08 left on the game clock.
Flacco has had his critics and I’ve been among them. But on this cool evening on the shores of the Monongahela River, Joe Cool finally put the team on his back and carried them to victory against a formidable opponent.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/PGT7dDjwp3A[/youtube]
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