It’s Ravens vs. Steelers for the AFC North championship in primetime.<\/p>\n
What else needs to be said? What better way to close the curtain on a regular season with so much drama?<\/p>\n
While it’s fitting for the Ravens and Steelers to meet in this situation, it’s the first time they’ve ever played for the division title in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n
With inconsistent play, Baltimore (8-8) and Pittsburgh (9-7) have flirted with danger this season like daredevils in a high-wire act. However, there will be no safety net to catch the team that falls on Sunday. The winner moves on and will be the No. 4 seed in the AFC playoffs. The loser moves directly into an offseason of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
The pressure on both teams is undeniable. Yet, beating the Steelers in this situation would give the Ravens the best feeling they’ve had all year, with a fourth-straight playoff berth to look forward to after starting 1-5.<\/p>\n
“We’ve worked hard to get this position,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “There’s a lot of different paths in football and there’s a lot of different paths in life. This is the path of the 2025 season, so here we are. Our goal is to make the most of it.”<\/p>\n
Harbaugh (18th season) and Mike Tomlin (19th season) will face each other for the 40th time on Sunday as the NFL’s longest-tenured current head coaches. The winning cultures they have built are part of the fabric of this rivalry. They have each won a Super Bowl. Harbaugh is the winningest coach in Ravens history, while Tomlin has never had a losing season.<\/p>\n
Yet, their track record of success has not shielded them from criticism during a challenging year. At his Monday press conference, Harbaugh was asked if Sunday’s outcome would be viewed as a “referendum” on either coach’s job security. That’s not a typical question during Ravens-Steelers week.<\/p>\n
However, Harbaugh remains laser-focused on winning, deaf to outside noise that won’t help him achieve what he works tirelessly to accomplish.<\/p>\n
“I really don’t have the [head] space for that,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not important. It’s sports. That’s how sports are. I feel honored to be a part of it. We feel it’s worthwhile to be in games like this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s Ravens vs. Steelers for the AFC North championship in primetime. What else needs to be said? What…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":480184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[216971,216972,20203,834,51,10013,10014,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-480183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-2025-week-18","9":"tag-2025-week-18-news","10":"tag-clifton-brown","11":"tag-general","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-homepage-latest-headlines","14":"tag-inline-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115808942778251889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}