It was a premeditated plan, born from a performance on a January night in Baltimore in which the Steelers had something happen to them that was foreign to their proud culture.

They got pushed around like a shopping cart by the neighborhood bully.

So, after their 28-14 playoff loss to the division-rival Ravens on Jan. 11, 2024, a game in which they allowed a franchise-record 299 yards rushing, the Steelers prepared an agenda as though they had stolen a page from a muscle-building magazine. They were not going to have sand kicked in their face again.

Most especially not by the Ravens.

And, even though they finished sixth in the NFL in rush defense in 2024, they set about into the offseason to build a bigger, stronger and more physical defense.

“We wanted to retool physicality in all areas,” coach Mike Tomlin said.

Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan spent the three days of the NFL draft ensuring their defensive line wouldn’t get pushed around again, not like it did at the end of the 2024 season when the Ravens rushed for 519 yards in two late-season games against the Steelers.

It began when they selected Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in the first round — the first time in 14 years they used their No. 1 pick on a defensive lineman. They followed that in the fourth round by taking 260-pound edge rusher Jack Sawyer, a converted defensive end who had a penchant for making big plays at Ohio State.

Then they showed how serious they really were about rebuilding their defensive front when they took massive nose tackle Yahya Black in the fifth round — the first time in 31 years they drafted two defensive linemen in the first five rounds.

“That definitely was an agenda of ours,” Tomlin said at the time.

But they didn’t stop there. They acquired defensive back Jalen Ramsey (6 feet 1, 208 pounds) in a trade to increase their size and nastiness in the secondary. Even on offense, they traded for wide receiver DK Metcalf (6-4, 235) to add a large measure of physicality, both in the literal and figurative sense.

They made it clear they were not going to let happen again what happened 358 days earlier in Baltimore.

They get the chance to prove it Sunday night against the Ravens at Acrisure Stadium. The winner claims the AFC North title and a home playoff game as the No. 4 seed. The loser goes home.

“I certainly feel better positioned in 2025 to deal with it than I did in 2024,” Tomlin said the other day.

“We’ll find out,” defensive end Cam Heyward said.

It’s not going to be easy.

As they have every year since 2023, the Ravens lead the NFL in rushing offense, averaging 157.8 yards per game. They average a league-best 5.3 yards per carry and have a league-high 23 runs of at least 20 yards, 15 by running back Derrick Henry.

In the Ravens’ 41-24 victory against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night, a game that prevented the Steelers from clinching the AFC North, Henry had four touchdowns and 216 of the Ravens’ 307 rushing yards.

The Steelers got to put their newfound physicality to the test when they played the Ravens in Baltimore on Dec. 7. The Steelers won 27-22, but the Ravens rushed for 217 yards — the third meeting in a row they had more than 200 yards rushing against the Steelers.

But Steelers players and coaches insisted that was different than what happened in the postseason loss in Baltimore. They didn’t think they got pushed around as much as they believed they simply got gouged by a couple of long runs, specifically a 55-yarder by Keaton Mitchell and a 19-yarder by Henry.

“I thought overall, we gave up big two runs, but other than that I thought we had a pretty good control of the run game,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said after the game.

The Steelers are allowing 13 more yards rushing per game this year (111.5) than last season (98.7), but they’ve also faced five of the top 10 rushing offenses in the league in 2025, including the top three. The Ravens and Buffalo Bills (249), who have the No. 2 rush offense, each topped the 200-yard mark.

However, the Steelers have shut down a number of top runners and rushing offenses, including Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor (45 yards on 14 carries), Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs (33 yards on 13 carries) and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs (2 yards on seven carries). They held the Chicago Bears, the NFC’s top-rushing team, to 58 yards below their per-game average. And they limited the 10th-ranked Miami Dolphins to 63 yards on 16 attempts.

The Ravens, though, are a different matter.

Since the start of the 2019 season, they are averaging 181.2 yards rushing in 14 games against the Steelers. They have rushed for at least 215 yards in seven of those meetings, or 50% of the time.

And the lynchpin of their offense, quarterback Lamar Jackson, did not play in five of those meetings.

“Often times, they force you into 11-on-11 football, because whether or not Lamar [Jackson] keeps the ball or not, there’s a threat of him keeping the ball,” Tomlin said. “And that often thins out your second and third level of defense when it comes to point-of-attack running.

“That’s some things that they do, uniquely, that others don’t. The quarterback mobility is a component of it that makes it unique. With Lamar’s unique talents, and certainly the unique talents of the big runner, [that] makes it a challenge, as well.”

Tomlin was referring to Henry, whose imposing size has brought the physicality to the Ravens’ running attack. In the past two meetings, including the playoff loss, he has rushed for 348 of their 516 yards (67.4%).

It’s why the Steelers made the moves they did — to not get pushed around by the Ravens again.

“What happened last year, we all addressed those concerns in the offseason,” Austin said.

The test will come Sunday.

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