Steelers and Ravens will decide the AFC North title in a high-stakes Week 18 showdown

Baltimore (8-8) at Pittsburgh (9-7)

Sunday, 8:20 p.m. EST, NBC.

BetMGM NFL odds: Ravens by 3 1/2.

Against the spread: Ravens 6-10; Steelers 8-7-1.

Series record: Steelers lead 38-26

Last meeting: Steelers won 27-22 on Dec. 7 in Baltimore

Last week: Ravens beat Packers 41-24; Steelers lost to Browns 13-6

Ravens offense: overall (16), rush (1), pass (28), scoring (11).

Ravens defense: overall (25), rush (11), pass (29), scoring (18).

Steelers offense: overall (26), rush (26), pass (22), scoring (15)

Steelers defense: overall (27), rush (12), pass (29), scoring (15)

Turnover differential: Ravens minus-2; Steelers plus-11;

QB Lamar Jackson. No sense overcomplicating this. Jackson has missed four games this season, including last weekend against Green Bay. It's been easily his least effective season in terms of being a running threat, and amid all of his injuries recently, some criticism has popped up about his professionalism and reliability. Jackson still has plenty of people in his corner, however, and this is a chance for him to quiet down some of the negative chatter.

QB Aaron Rodgers. The four-time MVP could be playing the final game of his stellar career on Sunday night. The 42-year-old has been steady if not spectacular at times, though he did throw for a season-high 284 yards in Pittsburgh's first meeting with Baltimore. That performance, however, comes with a caveat: it happened with wide receiver DK Metcalf in the lineup. Metcalf will be unavailable as he serves a two-game suspension after making physical contact with a fan in Detroit.

Steelers inside linebackers Patrick Queen, Malik Harrison and Payton Wilson against Ravens running back Derrick Henry. Henry has averaged a staggering 147.3 yards rushing in his past three games against Pittsburgh and is coming off a 216-yard, four-touchdown masterpiece last week in Green Bay. The Steelers' best chance at winning depends on stopping Henry and forcing Jackson to throw it in wintry conditions.

Ravens: Jackson (back) returned to practice on Wednesday and is expected to play Sunday. WR Rashod Bateman (illness) and LB Kyle Van Noy (quadriceps) missed practice time this week. LB Roquan Smith (hamstring) was limited.

Steelers: LB TJ Watt (lung surgery) could return after sitting out each of the past three games. ... TE Darnell Washington (broken arm) was placed on injured reserve, ending his season. ... LG Isaac Seumalo (triceps) was a full participant on Thursday and could be back after missing two games. ... WR Calvin Austin III (hamstring) and CB Brandon Echols (groin) may also return after sitting out last week.

The Steelers have won 9 of 12 against their longtime rivals in a series that remains tight regardless of the venue. All nine of Pittsburgh’s victories during that span have been decided by seven points or fewer. ... Pittsburgh is 21-12 all time at home against the Ravens (playoffs included) and holds a 6-2 advantage overall in January games versus Baltimore. ... A full 40 of the team's 64 games against each other have been decided by one score. The Steelers hold a 25-15 edge in those games. ... Pittsburgh is 6-5 all time against Baltimore on Sunday night prime-time games.

The winner earns the AFC North title and a home playoff game next week against the top-seeded AFC wild-card team. ... The meeting is the 10th “winner take all” final week matchup to decide a division winner since 2002. The Steelers had one such game during that stretch, a 27-17 win over Cincinnati in 2014. ... Baltimore went 3-6 on its home schedule this season — the worst mark in franchise history — but the Ravens have also won five straight road games. ... Baltimore RB Derrick Henry has 122 rushing touchdowns, one behind Marcus Allen for third on the NFL’s career list. Henry has 41 games with at least 100 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown, tied for fifth all time with Jim Brown. ... Baltimore is 9-2 in prime-time road games since 2022. ... The Ravens are trying to become the first team to win the AFC North three straight seasons. Since the division began in 2002, Baltimore has won back-to-back titles three times — in 2011 and 2012, 2018 and 2019, and in 2023 and 2024. ... Pittsburgh is 6-3 all time under coach Mike Tomlin in games in which it could clinch the division with a victory. ... The game marks the 40th meeting between Tomlin and Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, the second most between two head coaches in NFL history behind Chicago's George Halas and Green Bay's Curly Lambeau (49). ... Tomlin is one win shy of tying Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for ninth on the league's all-time victory list. Noll had 193 victories in 23 seasons in Pittsburgh. Tomlin, the longest-tenured coach in major North American professional sports, has reached 192 wins in 19 seasons with the Steelers. ... Pittsburgh 46-42 in regular-season finales, including a 14-4 mark under Tomlin. ... The Steelers have spread the wealth this season, with 11 different players catching touchdown passes from Rodgers or backup Mason Rudolph, tied with Tampa Bay for the most in the NFL. ... Rodgers is seeking his 11th season with at least 10 victories, which would move him into third all time on the NFL's list for 10-win seasons by a quarterback. ... Rodgers has thrown 185 consecutive passes without an interception, the longest active streak in the NFL. ... Pittsburgh RB Kenny Gainwell is one of six backs in the league with 500 or more yards rushing and at least 65 receptions.

If you're in one of those leagues that play through Week 18 and you have Henry on your roster, you might be in luck. Expect the Ravens to run him repeatedly against a defense that has been hit-or-miss at times this season against the run in what figures to be a tight, low-scoring game.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin calls a timeout during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) throws a pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson watches on the field during pre-game warm ups before an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Matt Ludtke)

A solo hiker who authorities believe was killed by a mountain lion on a remote Colorado trail on New Year's Day was not the first person to encounter a big cat in the area in recent weeks.

Gary Messina said he was running along the same trail on a dark November morning when his headlamp caught the gleam of two eyes in the nearby brush. Messina used his phone to snap a quick photo before a mountain lion rushed him.

Messina said he threw the phone at the animal, kicked dirt and yelled as the lion kept trying to circle behind him. After a couple of harrowing minutes he broke a bat-sized stick off a downed log, hit the lion in the head with it and it ran off, he said.

The woman whose body was found Thursday on the same Crosier Mountain trail had “wounds consistent with a mountain lion attack,” said Kara Van Hoose with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. An autopsy is scheduled for next week, said Rafael Moreno with the Larimer County Coroner's Office.

Wildlife officials late Thursday tracked down and killed two mountain lions in the area — one at the scene and another nearby. A necropsy will help determine if either or both of those animals attacked the woman and whether they had neurological diseases such as rabies or avian flu.

A search for a third mountain lion reported in the area was ongoing Friday, Van Hoose said. Nearby trails remained closed while the hunt continued. Van Hoose said circumstances would dictate whether that lion also is killed.

Based on the aggressiveness of the animal that attacked him on Nov. 11, Messina suspects it could be the same one that killed the woman on New Year’s Day.

“I had to fight it off because it was basically trying to maul me,” Messina told The Associated Press. “I was scared for my life and I wasn’t able to escape. I tried backing up and it would try to lunge at me.”

The 32-year-old man from nearby Glen Haven, Colorado, reported his encounter to wildlife officials days later who posted signs to warn people about the animal along trails in the Crosier Mountain area northeast of Estes Park, Van Hoose said. The signs were later removed, she said.

Mountain lion sightings in that area east of Rocky Mountain National Park are common, Van Hoose said, because it offers good habitat for the big cats: It’s remote with thick forests, rocky outcroppings and lots of elevation changes.

Yet attacks on humans by the animals are rare, and the last suspected fatal encounter in Colorado was in 1999, when a 3-year-old boy disappeared in the wilderness and his tattered clothes were found more than three years later. In 1997, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a lion and dragged away while hiking with family members in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Two hikers on Thursday saw the victim's body on the trail at around noon from about 100 yards away, Van Hoose said. A mountain lion was nearby and they threw rocks to scare it away. One of the hikers, a physician, attended to the victim but did not find a pulse, Van Hoose said.

The victim will be publicly identified following the autopsy by the coroner, who is also expected to provide a cause of death.

Mountain lions — also known as cougars, pumas or catamounts — can weigh 130 pounds (60 kilograms) and grow to more than six feet (1.8 meters) long. They primarily eat deer.

Colorado has an estimated 3,800-4,400 of the animals, which are classified as a big game species in the state and can be hunted.

Thursday's killing would be the fourth fatal mountain lion attack in North America over the past decade, and the 30th since 1868, according to information from the California-based Mountain Lion Foundation. Not all of those deaths have been confirmed as mountain lion attacks.

Most attacks occur during the day and when humans are active in lion territories, indicating the animals are not seeking out the victims, according to the advocacy group. About 15% of attacks are fatal.

“As more people live, work, and recreate in areas that overlap wildlife habitat, interactions can increase, not because mountain lions are becoming more aggressive, but because overlap is growing,” said Byron Weckworth, chief conservation officer for the foundation.

To reduce the risk travel in groups, keep children close and avoid dawn and dusk when lions are most active, Weckworth said. During an encounter, maintain eye contact with the lion, make yourself appear larger and back away slowly; don't run, he said.

Last year in Northern California, two brothers were stalked and attacked by a lion that they tried to fight off. One of the brothers was killed.

FILE - The General Store is seen Oct. 24, 2006, in Glen Haven, Colo. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring, File)