- The Week 12 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens has been postponed again, this time to Wednesday.
- The Ravens lineup has been decimated due to positive COVID-19 tests and players quarantined as a high-risk contact.
- At least a dozen players have tested positive.
If nothing else, you can’t say that the NFL lacks tenacity. They’re determined to get the Week 12 game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers played this week. The game was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night but had to be postponed due to a serious COVID-19 outbreak in the Baltimore camp. That outbreak has only gotten worse involving more players–not the least of which is the reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. The game had originally been moved to Sunday but with the Ravens’ situation not showing much improvement was postponed until Tuesday. Now that’s not going to happen and the new tentative date for the game is on Wednesday:
The league has also been forced to move some Week 13 games. The Ravens Week 13 game against the Dallas Cowboys will be moved for a second time from December 7 to Tuesday, December 8 at 5:05 PM Pacific/8:05 PM Eastern:
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 13 game originally scheduled for Sunday against the Washington Football Team has been moved to Monday at 2 PM Pacific/5 PM Eastern. As is their wont, the NFL released a statement assuring the public that all of this has been done ‘out of an abundance of caution’ and after conferring with all sorts of experts:
“These decisions were made out of an abundance of caution to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches and game day personnel and in consultation with medical experts.”
The NFL also indicated that the additional day of delay in the scheduling of the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game was not a matter of which players would be available:
The league postponed the game for a third time to gain an extra day of COVID-19 testing results and to allow Ravens players time to train and avoid muscle strains, not because of who would or would not be available, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported.
ESPN ran through the mess that is the Baltimore Ravens lineup:
Baltimore is in the midst of one of the largest outbreaks in professional sports. The Ravens have had 22 players test positive or get identified as a high-risk close contact over the past nine days.
At least a dozen Ravens players have tested positive, including reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, along with five Pro Bowl players: defensive end Calais Campbell, tight end Mark Andrews, outside linebacker Matthew Judon, running back Mark Ingram and fullback Patrick Ricard.
The Ravens still have 20 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Baltimore added four players (Andrews, Judon, wide receiver Willie Snead IV and cornerback Terrell Bonds) and removed four players (outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson, offensive lineman D.J. Fluker, cornerback Iman Marshall and defensive tackle Broderick Washington). Marshall will revert to injured reserve.
Running backs JK Dobbins and Ingram will be eligible to play Wednesday but 13 Ravens players, including Jackson, will remain on the reserve/COVID-19 list, a source told Schefter.
As of Monday evening, the Ravens have 38 players on their 53-man roster after guard Tyre Phillips (shoulder) was activated off injured reserve and cornerback Davontae Harris was officially signed.
The Ravens had yet another positive COVID-19 test on Monday making it nine straight days with at least one positive result. There is a bit of good news, however, as the player that tested positive is on the IR list and hasn’t had any contact with teammates.
Assuming it gets played, the Ravens-Steelers game will become only the third NFL game played on a Wednesday since 1948. The Los Angeles Rams played the Detroit Lions on September 22, 1948. The only other Wednesday game in this timeframe came in 2012 when the season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants was played one day earlier than is tradition as not to conflict with Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.
We’ll close with the Ravens’ injury report from the Don Best odds feed which is absolutely insane and took two screenshots to capture it all:
