Ray Rice Situation and how it plays into the Thursday game.

What do you think about, the whole Ray Rice Situation with the NFL and the Ravens.
Does it benefit the Steelers, with all the negative publicity?
Or does in pump up the Ravens team and tick them off for Thursday and make them play better?

How do you guys see this playing out on Thursday?

I'm going to go that it doesn't motivate them to play harder or better.

 

I think it's just going to be your typical Knock down, Drag out beat down by 2 of the most physical teams in the history of this game. It will be no different than any other hated rivalry by these two clubs.

 

Every raven fan I have talked to had said the steelers are going to come in there and roll them. They think the ravens are going to flat and mentally exhausted.

 

Won't know their state of mind or quality of play till we meet on the field thurs. A difficult situation for which there is no easy determination of outcome. It's a catch-22.

 

It doesn't matter what the fans think. It's Thursday Night football on National TV between two teams that really really dislike each other.

Other than the announcers mentioning every 10 seconds, I doubt that any player on the field plays with less or more intensity then they already do when these two teams meet.

 

"Hey, I'm getting pumped up for the next game because my ex teammate is a dirt ball"? Nah.

"Hey, it's the Steelers on national TV, now I'm pumped"! Yeah.

 

I could see it having a background affect on the Ravens purely because of the mental fatigue this will bring on the team during an already short week. Still ought to be a close hard fought game though.

 

See, and I was thinking the exact opposite. It seems every time we go to Baltimore, there is something "special" going on. This is not a good "special", but I just see the Ravens rallying around each other in the locker room and coming out with a purpose.

 

I don't think it will make that much difference in the game. He was already not going to play due to being suspended for the first 2 games, so they've already had time to digest some of the trouble he was in.

True this is a much bigger deal, but it's not like going from 0 to 100. They knew he was in trouble so it's not as much as a shock as if it just came out of nowhere.

 

How flat and distracted did the steelers look when they played the eagles. A locker room is a finicky place and one little thing can cause major problems in it. These guys are focused on ray rice and I'm sure some of the players are on the ravens side and others Rice. Canty was about to cry in his interview so this for have an affect on their team and their moral.

 

I think it will have the following effect. If they come out with their hair on fire this situation will spur them onto victory. If they come out and the Steelers jump on them early then the opposite will happen and they will fall apart.

If the Steelers can get off to a quick start I don't see the Ratbirds rallying like Cleveland did last week.

 

That's assuming our team doesn't buy that nonsense and walk into that game thinking it's in the bag. In which case we'll get rolled.

 

We should play the drinking game Thurs night.. Everytime they mention Ray Rice you drink lol..

 

Maybe they should bring in Ray Ray for halftime speech lol

 

I don't think it will have much impact on the ravens as far as this game goes. As someone already posted, Rice was out of this game no matter what, so it's not like it messed up the ravens gameplan. I think it's going to be like any other ravens/steelers match up. Intense and probably a very close score, coming down to whoever has the last possession.

 

he was out anyway this week, but the ravens had the prospect of getting him back right after..... he's totally gone now, and that has got to be demoralizing, as rice was really the engine that powered their offense.......
I actually can see them coming out flatter than we were in wk. 3 of the preseason when the news of bell and blunt broke

 

it doesn't matter. it's the ravens/steelers both are already revved up for this one. we just don't like each other. as it should be.

if he played, I'd be all for dr. Wallace to move to the defensive side of the ball and examine left hook ray at the bottom of the piles.

 

I for one appreciate TMZ showing it during the weeks the Rats play the Steelers.

 

I think when these two teams play each other they are always closely matched, as they know each other well and both have the same amount of hate for each other, so the Rice thing will throw the Ravens out of wack some and throw the favor in the Steelers direction. So yeah, it will have an affect on the outcome of the game.

 

Nonfactor IMO

 

If we win the coin toss we take the ball and throw the kitchen sink at them on offense. I mean screens, rollouts and try to get on top of them early.

If we lose the coin toss we throw every exotic blitz we can think of on flacco. Run blitzes and just try to impose our will early.