From CBS Sports
The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens met, a place in the Super Bowl was at stake. This time, the matchup could play a big role in which team reaches the postseason.
The AFC North rivals meet Sunday night in Baltimore with neither in first place, both searching for answers and Ben Roethlisberger expected to sit out for the Steelers after suffering his fourth concussion since 2006.
Ben Roethlisberger has been ruled out of today's game due to the effects of a concussion suffered last week.
Pittsburgh (6-4) beat Baltimore (5-5) three times in 2008 en route to its record sixth Super Bowl title, and its 23-14 win in the AFC title game may have been the most bruising encounter of the bunch. The defensive battle saw each team punt seven times, with the Steelers putting the game out of reach with Troy Polamalu’s 40-yard interception return for a touchdown with 4:24 left.
Both teams trail North leader Cincinnati, which is 7-3. These clubs meet twice in the next five weeks and the stakes are completely different less than 10 months since they last played.
That doesn’t change anyone’s expectation of a hard-hitting, tightly contested matchup.
“The way we play each other, it’s always a physical ballgame, it’s always going to come down to one of the last plays,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “It’s just the way it is.” (Read more.)
