{"id":76383,"date":"2026-01-02T19:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/76383\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T19:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:43:14","slug":"ravens-favored-to-win-third-straight-afc-north-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/76383\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravens Favored to Win Third Straight AFC North Title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                Kyle Goon<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 23, Steelers 16: \u201cLamar Jackson is a bit of a wild card compared to previous seasons given how his play has fluctuated, but if the Ravens can stick to a ground-based game plan and not ask too much of the passing attack, they should advance (against all odds) to the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Giana Han<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 21, Steelers 18: \u201cThis isn\u2019t the same Steelers team the Ravens faced four weeks ago. They\u2019ve suffered numerous injuries, but the thing that made me pick in the Ravens\u2019 favor is a suspension. Wide receiver DK Metcalf got into it with a Detroit fan, and right or wrong, he\u2019s now out until a potential postseason game. And without him, the Steelers look like a team that can\u2019t make it that far. They won\u2019t be able to target the Ravens\u2019 weakest point on defense. They\u2019ll be able to at least get into field goal territory (hence the 18 points).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Paul Mancano<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 24, Steelers 14: \u201cAs poorly as the Ravens\u2019 secondary has looked the last few weeks, they should be able to contain Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen. What we do know is Baltimore will be able to bottle up the run: Pittsburgh racked up just 34 rushing yards four weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Jonas Shaffer<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 23, Steelers 13: \u201cA Mike Tomlin-led team should never be underestimated, but how far can good coaching go with a Steelers offense this limited? Even if Pittsburgh handles the Ravens\u2019 ground game and has Lamar Jackson under pressure all night, the Steelers will need either turnovers or long touchdown drives to put this game away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Brandon Weigel<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 21, Steelers 13: \u201cAnyone who suffered through the Steelers\u2019 13-6 loss to the Browns last Sunday saw how hapless Pittsburgh looked without Metcalf and Calvin Austin III. Austin could return, but Metcalf will still be serving his two-game suspension. With a similar dedication to Derrick Henry and the return of Lamar Jackson, the Ravens are perfectly positioned to capture the AFC North for a third straight season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Childs Walker<\/p>\n<p>                Ravens 26, Steelers 20: \u201cThe Ravens have run for 200 yards like clockwork against Pittsburgh\u2019s defense, and it\u2019s difficult to imagine them de-emphasizing their ground game after they trampled the Packers. So the recipe should be simple. It almost never is in this rivalry, as we saw last month, when the Ravens outgained the Steelers by 102 yards and still lost. They couldn\u2019t control the calls that went against them in that game, but they have to avoid the turnovers and mental mistakes that have plagued them in past losses at Acrisure Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Goon Ravens 23, Steelers 16: \u201cLamar Jackson is a bit of a wild card compared to previous&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39318,39319,1446,28399,28400,73,75,74,39317],"class_list":["post-76383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-2025-week-18","tag-2025-week-18-news","tag-general","tag-homepage-latest-headlines","tag-inline-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pundit-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}