Heavyweight Fight - 5 Reasons Steelers at Ravens is Game of the Year Material

These teams can't wait to kill each other.

The NFL loves making a big deal about rivalry games, but let's be honest, many of them just fall flat. Take Monday night's debacle on ESPN, for example. Was anyone really on the edge of their seats, waiting for the knock down, drag out rivalry of Cardinals/49ers to enter its next brutal chapter? Not so much. Many NFL rivalries are manufactured, contrived, and carry all the actual heat and malice of an annoyed upstairs neighbor.

This is not one of those rivalries.

Since the birth of the AFC North in the 2002 realignment, the Ravens and Steelers have consistently been near the top of the heap in the division - and have spent all 8 years trying their damndest to knock the other back down the mountain. Here's 5 reasons the latest installment in this bitter rivalry won't disappoint.

1. It's the nastiest rivalry in the NFL

Maybe not the longest-running or the most storied, but certainly the most physical. Both teams pride themselves on being stalwarts of the old-school, "smash mouth" style of football defined by hard hits and power running. Yes, both squads have added a vertical passing element in recent seasons (due largely to a substantial improvement in the quality of the QB on both teams), but the first thing you think of with either team is their ability to hit you in the mouth, which will certainly be on display Sunday night.

2. It's sure to be competitive

Margins of victory in the last 5 games played between the Steelers and Ravens, including postseason matchups: 3, 9, 4, 3, and 6. It's been over 3 years since these teams played a game with a double-digit margin of victory, and two of the games played in that time period went to overtime.

3. It's for all the marbles

Both the Steelers and Ravens enter Sunday's matchup with an 8-3 record, Baltimore holding the slightest of division leads based on their head-to-head tiebreaker after beating a crippled, Ben Roethlisberger-less Steelers team (more on that later) in Week 3. And with just 4 games remaining after this one, it's very possible the two teams could finish with nearly identical records, making this second head-to-head matchup even more significant as it may end up functioning as a de-facto divisional championship game, even possibly netting the winner a first-round bye in the playoffs.

4. It features each team's headliners

When these two teams met for the first time this season, a 20-17 Baltimore victory in overtime, there were notable absences on both sides. Most obviously, Pittsburgh was without its starting QB as Ben Roethlisberger served a suspension for offseason code of conduct violations.

But what has been largely forgotten (or ignored) is that the Ravens were also missing arguably their best player, all-world safety Ed Reed. As if you needed proof of how important both these guys are to their teams, the Steelers are 5-2 since Roethlisberger's return, and Reed leads the Ravens in interceptions despite having missed the first 6 games of the season. In addition to being a fun matchup to watch, these two should heavily bolster their respective teams.

5. It's going to make the league office some money

In a much-publicized ongoing story, James Harrison is the league's most penalized player this season, having paid over $100,000 dollars in fines for illegal hits, mainly helmet-to-helmet hits. While some of these calls have been legit, many observers (and of course, Harrison and his teammates) have cried foul on what they have deemed a "watering down" of the physical aspects of the game.

They're unlikely to get much sympathy from the Ravens, who have dealt with similar issues for years. Terrell Suggs in particular, who plays Harrison's position on the Ravens, has a long history of flags for hits on opposing QBs and for feuding with NFL officials, alluding this week to favoritism towards superstar QBs like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. I'm setting the over/under for total personal foul penalties in this game at 5.

So there you have it - playoff implications, physical tendencies, a history of competitive matchups and even some "players vs. league administration" drama! Looks like Sunday's headliner should be another slugfest for the ages.