November Event: Leaving it all on the Gridiron

It is one of the best rivalries in all of sports. The Baltimore Ravens against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This AFC North rivalry brings out the best in the players and the coaches. It also brings out a ton of hatred and animosity between the fans. This year’s games had a different yet similar flare about it. To start, the two teams played each other twice in three weeks. This made each game much more important in deciding who would win the division crown, which has been the case the past couple of seasons. They met each on November 18^th at Heinz Field and again on December 2^nd at M&T Bank Stadium. The visiting Ravens enjoyed a narrow victory in the first meeting with a final score of 13-10. However, the Steelers would exact revenge and win 23-20 during the second meeting. 

 Also, each team had their fair share of injuries to key starters. The Ravens lost cornerback Lardarius Webb and middle linebacker Ray Lewis. Starting in place of Lardarius Webb was Cary Williams and stepping in for Ray Lewis was Danelle Ellerbe. For the Steelers, quarterback Ben Roethlisburger did not play in either of the games, safety Troy Polamalu missed the first meeting, and corner back Ike Taylor sat out the second game. Starting in place of Troy Polamalu was Will Allen, starting in place of “Big Ben” was veteran Charlie Batch, and Ike Taylor was replaced by Cortez Allen.  Each of these injuries limited what the teams like to accomplish on both sides of the football. 

  

These two teams have hatred for each other that transcends the field and into each side’s fans.  That same hatred can also be felt here in Frostburg, where fans of the two teams are well represented.

Although most of the students were busy working on projects to finish out the semester, these football games were considered a much watch. Alex Baldwin, a junior at Frostburg State and a die-hard Ravens fan, enjoyed this year’s games a lot. “The first game, the Ravens set the pace from the beginning. The second game, they lost it. The Steelers didn’t do anything to win that game. The Ravens made a couple of mistakes that lost them the game,” said Baldwin. He brings up a good point if you take a look at the time of possession from the first game compared to the second. The first game the Steelers had the ball longer, but the Ravens still won which suggests that Baltimore controlled the tempo to their liking. The second game, the Steeler won held the ball longer and ended up on top.  Junior Brenden Williams, also a Ravens fan, blames the loss on Cam Cameron saying, “His playcalls on offense are allowing our opponents to stay in the game. We need to run the ball more. We have one of the best running backs in the league and he is not touching the football enough.” Running back Ray Rice did not touch the football in the entire fourth quarter in the December 2^nd loss to the Steelers.  Senior CJ Eng, was estactic about the way his Steelers played saying, "We weren't supposed to win either of those games. I thought our season was pretty much done when Big Ben got hurt, but we manned up and put our big boy pants on to get the win." Baltimore still hold a two game lead over the Steelers in the division, but the Steelers are in control of one of two wild-card spots in the AFC.