Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith is anticipating that it will be a lot more difficult to run crisp routes this weekend than it has been during other games this season. And that has nothing to do with the ability of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ cover cornerbacks.
With significant rainfall in the forecast for Saturday night, Smith is expecting the “terrible” Heinz Field playing surface to be a mess.
“It’s terrible. They need to go ahead and put some turf up there or something,” he said Thursday, via ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley. “Apparently the field gets a lot of use. That’s good for them [as a business], but it’s terrible for us [as players on both teams] playing this late [in the season]. I’m sure they’ll do a great job prepping it.”
As Hensley noted, Heinz Field has been rated the worst playing surface in the NFL by players in the two most recent player polls. In addition to Steelers games, the stadium also hosts Pittsburgh University games and some high school ball.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh did not seem as concerned about the weather.
“I think we’ve got the contingencies built in,” Harbaugh said. “We just have to see how the game plays out. I like to think our schemes are weatherproof.”
While both teams will be playing under the same conditions, you can understand concerns about player safety. Earlier this season, a Houston Texans player blamed the field surface at NRG Stadium for Jadeveon Clowney’s knee injury, which cost him almost all of his rookie year. You’d hate to see something like that happen in Pittsburgh.
