Ravens wanted Steelers in post season

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti revealed Tuesday that he wanted his team to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs last season.

In the "State of the Ravens" news conference, Bisciotti said he rooted for the Steelers to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the final game of the 2014 regular season so the Ravens would meet the their biggest division rival in the wild-card round. Bisciotti got his wish, and the Ravens upset the Steelers, 30-17, in Pittsburgh.

"John [Harbaugh, Ravens coach,] and I talked that night after our last [regular-season] game, and we said, ‘We want Pittsburgh. They don’t think we were supposed to be here anyway. I’m not rooting for Cincinnati. I’m rooting for Pittsburgh. I want to go get that monkey off our back,’ and we did," Bisciotti said. "I consider that a great success."

The Ravens were previously winless against the Steelers in the postseason, falling to their rivals three times in the playoffs (2001, 2008 and 2010). Bisciotti also pointed out that he was a fan of the Baltimore Colts when they lost both of their playoff games to Pittsburgh (1975 and 1976).

"I had a long history of losing to the Steelers in the playoffs," Bisciotti said.

Here are some other highlights from Bisciotti, who typically talks to reporters twice a year:

• Bisciotti offered another reason why defensive tackle Haloti Ngata should want to sign an extension and finish his career with the Ravens. "Twenty-eight teams don’t have Royal Farms stores in their area, so there is some incentive for him to want to stay here to close things out," Bisciotti said. Ngata promotes fried chicken on television commercials for the mid-Atlantic convenience store chain.
• Bisciotti took a shot at the more frugal teams in the league. "There are a lot of teams out there that don’t spend to the cap, and we do," he said. "I’m always envious of those teams right about this time of the year, and then they’re envious of me when we are in the playoffs." The Ravens have reached the postseason in six of the past seven seasons.
• The Ravens lost to the New England Patriots in the playoffs one week before the controversy over deflated balls became a national story, but Bisciotti refused to use the condition of footballs as an excuse why the Ravens didn't advance to the AFC Championship Game. "We didn’t lose the [divisional playoff] game because of deflated footballs," he said. "We lost because we couldn’t stop them in the fourth quarter.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/

Just another reason to hate the ratbirds,(like we needed one).

 

Winning a wildcard game is "success..."

That folks is the difference between us and them

 

No surprise here. The Ravens have long viewed us as their acid test.

 

the raiders want to play with us too...

 

Of course they would want to play a team that was missing one of their star players. I guarantee you they didn't want to play us in 08 though.

 

yeah, if bell is healthy, they want no part of us. I also believe we beat them is he is there. not an excuse, just a fact

 

To be fair, they won a Super Bowl more recently than we have, so, no, I can't agree with this.

 

Ravens are built to beat Steelers.
Everyone knows that. Hahaha

 

Yes it is. They won. We lost.

 

Well our defense doesn't strike fear in anyone. I think there are many teams that were licking their chops.

 

Especially with Bell missing. We stunk it up that game though. D was garbage.