This week certainly hasn\’t felt like a typical Steelers-Ravens week thanks to the injury suffered by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, but it is starting to now thanks to some comments made by cornerback Keenan Lewis to the Baltimore Sun.
Lewis was asked about facing Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith Sunday night, and according to the quotes he gave the paper, he\’s not too worried about him.
“Honestly, he’s a real fast guy but he’s not Mike Wallace,” Lewis said of Smith. “We’ve got the fastest guy in the league. Period. Every day. So when you have a guy like that you practice with, especially me in the summer time then every day in practice, I’m feeling pretty comfortable about guarding him.”
While Lewis didn\’t go as far as predicting a win the way Steelers safety Anthony Smith did back in 2007 against the New England Patriots, he did deliver a shot to the Ravens receiver that is similar to the one Anthony took at Randy Moss and Wes Welker prior to that game.
Need a memory refresher of what Anthony said specifically?
“They\’ve got Walker and Moss,” Smith said, referring to Patriots receivers prior to the game. “But they\’re not like Cincinnati.”
Oh, and about that guarantee?
“We\’re going to win,” Smith said. “Yeah, I can guarantee a win. As long as we come out and do what we got to do. Both sides of the ball are rolling, and if our special teams come through for us, we\’ve got a good chance to win.”
That didn\’t work out so well for Anthony as he was successfully targeted by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady several times in the Patriots 34-13 beating of the Steelers and Brady let him know about after one score. Smith was victimized for explosive play touchdowns in the game by Randy Moss and Jabar Gaffney to boot and his time in Pittsburgh was over following the 2008 season.
Lewis is certainly playing well this season, but this is his first year as a starter and the Steelers certainly don\’t need to give the Ravens any extra motivation heading into this game. He has been around this team long enough to know better.
Sometimes it is just better to let your play on the field do all of the talking. Should the Ravens Smith wind up having a big night Sunday against Lewis, you can bet that Lewis will be hearing references to the Steelers 2007 Smith for a while.
