Ravens rivalry game with Steelers might become nightmare

Pittsburgh actually has a chance, albeit an unlikely one, of winning the AFC North if they win out and Cincinnati loses both of their remaining games, leaving both teams 11-5 and headed to tiebreakers.

Back in November, CBS Sports’s Jason La Canfora reported that the future Hall of Famer is “strongly leaning” towards playing again in 2016, finishing his tweet by saying “Warrior wants to keep on fighting”. Smith’s season started with mediocrity from his team, and ended with a awful Achilles injury.

Las Vegas betting odds have the Steelers as 6/1 favorites to win the Super Bowl, just behind the New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, and Arizona Cardinals. Mitchell returned to the game but Tomlin said that they’ll monitor him throughout the practice week.

Smith exited Sunday’s loss to Kansas City after the opening possession of the game with a thigh injury.

Pittsburgh (9-5) has won three straight and five of six to move into position for at least an AFC wild-card berth. “I wouldn’t read too much into it”.

Tomlin said they’ll need to focus on not allowing Baltimore to run the ball on them as they did in the game earlier this season. Roethlisberger missed the October game with a knee injury, and a Mike Vick-led offense could only muster 263 net yards against a vulnerable Ravens defense. “I think they’ll be fired up”, Harbaugh said. But when you watch the tape, they are still largely the same body or group of guys we played the last time.

The three-game homestand comes to a merciful end Sunday.

Ever since Steve Smith Sr. suffered his season-ending injury, there’s been plenty of speculation regarding the status of the Baltimore Ravens wideout for the 2016 season. However Tomlin explained with the team being relatively healthy for this time of year he will use this week to give the veterans time to rest and get more work to the youngsters.

Since the Ravens made Smith the 27th overall pick in 2011, Smith has been plagued by injuries. We’ll see how it plays out. Of course, that doesn’t rule Mallett out of the mix, as it’s quite possible he only needs 10 days of preparation to be a superior option to Matt Schaub and Jimmy Clausen. “That’s what we’ll be working on this week”. In fact, the Steelers played against backup quarterbacks for the past three weeks and are guaranteed to finish out the season against backups as well.