Last season, heading into their December matchup, the Pittsburgh Steelers had won four straight games against the Baltimore Ravens. It weighed on many players in the locker room, including inside linebacker Patrick Queen.
“You’re not a Raven until you beat the Steelers,” Queen and many others said.
But that mantra was screamed at Queen years ago, before his first game against the Steelers in Week 8 of 2020. The person delivering the message? Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin.
“When I was on their sideline my rookie year [Steelers Head Coach] Mike Tomlin was looking at me, yelling at me, ‘You’re not a Raven. You’re not a Raven. You’re not supposed to be there. You’re not one of them.’ So, every time I play them there’s something personal.”
Regardless of Tomlin’s meaning behind the message, Queen took it as disrespectful, and carries it with him each time he faces the black and gold.
“I don’t care if he was joking. I don’t care if he was serious. At the end of the day I’m on your sideline and you’re telling me I’m not a Raven. That’s kind of disrespectful.”
It’s taken some time for Queen to be on the winning side of this rivalry. Entering 2022, he was 0-4. But in 2022, the team, along with Queen, broke their four-game losing streak. Sadly, they didn’t start a streak of their own as the Steelers beat them at M&T Bank later on. Queen’s paltry record against them has lingered in his mind.
“Sitting at 1-5 against them. It’s not a good record at all. We’re looking to change that. That’s been the talk. Just trying to catch back up on that record. And obviously all those games were decided by very few points and we know where we went wrong in those games. That’s what we’re leaning on now is just correcting our past mistakes.”