As disheartening as much of the 2025 season has been for the Pittsburgh Steelers, if this team has any pulse, in a game against the Baltimore Ravens, pride will kick in. After being demoralized and run over by the Buffalo Bills last week, things must change quickly if Pittsburgh is going to turn things around with a signature victory this week.
As someone who is no stranger to what the Steelers – Ravens rivalry means, Trai Essex offered a blunt key to victory that Pittsburgh will need to employ and it doesn’t involve X’s and O’s.
“We have to play with some damn heart,” Essex said on The Snap Count podcast. “Last week was a straight up indictment of where this Steelers franchise is in the eyes of Steeler Nation.”
As Essex noted, fans in Pittsburgh were chanting to fire head coach Mike Tomlin and Renegade, usually the Steelers’ anthem and rallying cry, was met with a chorus of boos. Both of those are byproducts of a team not playing with heart and making its city proud.
For Essex, it all starts with limiting Baltimore’s run game.
“Playing with heart means we got to stop the damn run,” Essex said. “You got to stop Derrick Henry, right? You got to stop Lamar Jackson from getting those explosive plays, those back-breaking plays. Hasn’t made a lot of them this year. Don’t make the Steelers the first team he really comes out and does that against.”
It will be a real challenge for Pittsburgh’s defense to rebound from last week’s dreadful performance against the run in which they allowed 249 yards rushing to the Buffalo Bills. But it’s not just the defensive side of the ball that will be the key to success.
“It’s going to start in the trenches. It’s going to start with the o-line and the d-line and then it’ll trickle down from there,” Essex continued. “I need to see some big hits
from the defensive line, some hits in the back field. And I need some offensive linemen pushing some Baltimore Ravens where they don’t want to go.”
“But all that starts with the mindset and the mentality that we’re going to go out there and play with some heart and wear that Pittsburgh Steelers name on our chest with some damn pride.”
Being able to run the ball and control time of possession would be a refreshing change of pace for the Steelers if they are able to achieve it. Whenever these two teams get together, it’s more often than not a low-scoring, hard-hitting affair where one big play can make all the difference. What has happened up to this point in the season won’t matter anymore once the game begins. For better or worse, rivalry games have a tendency to reveal teams’ true identity. We will find out this week how much heart the Pittsburgh Steelers have.
