Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers has only played the Steelers twice in his burgeoning career, so perhaps a lack of mental scar tissue and an abundance of youthful bravado explains his perspective on Pittsburgh’s recent dominance over Baltimore.

“Nothing,” the second-year player said bluntly Tuesday when asked what the Steelers do that makes the Ravens’ life so difficult against them. “They don’t really do nothing that really stresses me, if I’m being honest.

“I don’t think it’s trouble. I think we always have turnovers, missed kicks, stuff like that during the game, so if we just eliminate those — because we move the ball downfield — I know you see that. … We just have to take care of the ball, make kicks and try to put the ball in the end zone.”

Of course, that’s been easier said than done with the Steelers winning eight of their past nine against Baltimore, including earlier this season in Pittsburgh.

Now the two will meet again, this time at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday with the AFC North on the line. If the Steelers win, the division title is theirs. If the Ravens do, they still have a shot, though they’ll need help.

But if Baltimore has any hope, it will have to reverse what’s been a frighteningly bad trend against their most hated rival.

Over their past nine meetings, the Ravens have racked up a whopping 53 penalties for 458 yards. They’ve also turned the ball over an astonishing 19 times. That included a bumbling, mistake-filled 18-16 loss in Week 11 in Pittsburgh, where Baltimore committed 12 penalties for 80 yards, coughed it up three times and Justin Tucker missed two of four field goal attempts.

He wasn’t the only culprit, though.

Flowers had just two catches for 39 yards and a touchdown but also had a crucial drop when he was wide-open and was flagged for a false start on third-and-5 at the start of the fourth quarter from deep in the Ravens’ end that led to a punt two plays later. In two career games against the Steelers, he has seven catches on 17 targets for 112 yards and one score but also has three drops, and his second-lowest graded games of last season and this one, per Pro Football Focus, have come against Pittsburgh.

It’s not an indictment of Flowers — who leads the Ravens in catches (66) and receiving yards (916) to go with four touchdowns — as much as it is a microcosm of Baltimore’s struggles against its fiercest rival.

“Coach Harbaugh always tells us we have to learn how to not lose games before we can win games, so it’s very true in this sport,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “There is stuff that we have to clean up, and we know we will.”

So far, they haven’t been able to.

Some of Baltimore’s struggles, of course, can be traced to not having quarterback Lamar Jackson for nearly half of those nine games.

In the 2023 regular-season finale, the Ravens rested Jackson and others with their playoff seeding already secured. In 2020, he missed a December game in Pittsburgh because of COVID-19. The next season, he was out with an ankle injury for a Week 18 game in Baltimore. In 2022, a season-ending knee injury caused him to miss both contests.

But even when he has been on the field, Jackson has been flummoxed by Pittsburgh, with the Ravens just 1-4 with him as a starter; his lone win was a 26-23 overtime victory in Week 5 in 2019.

In their most recent meeting, he completed just 16 of 33 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown pass with one interception and was sacked twice. For his career, Jackson, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, has completed 66.7% of his passes for 1,077 yards with five touchdowns and eight interceptions in seven games.

“Just losing in general bothers me,” he said Tuesday, noting the proliferation of penalties and self-inflicted mistakes that always seem to play a significant role when the two teams meet. “Not the team really. Just gotta find a way to get a ‘dub.

“I’m one of the vets now, so obviously I gotta lead by example.”

He’s not the only one.

“There’s been a lot of different things that seems like it hasn’t went our way,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “But it’s not like we were just unlucky. It was just you gotta play disciplined.”

That’s been a major problem for Baltimore and a point of emphasis this week.

“We all believe we should’ve won the last game,” defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike said. “We made mistakes, self-inflicted mistakes, so we’re here to finish the mess that we started earlier.”

Yet, the Ravens have the dubious distinction of continuing to lead the NFL in penalties with 117 after committing a dozen against the lowly 2-12 New York Giants on Sunday.

It hasn’t been on just one side of the ball, either. Baltimore has the second-most offensive holding penalties this season with 23. On defense, they share the lead with the most holding penalties (12), are tied for the most roughing the passer penalties (6) and have drawn the third-most pass interference flags (13).

In a series in which the average margin of victory over the past nine games has been 3.78 points, those kind of mistakes prove costly and show a lack of discipline.

Now all that’s at stake is the division title, and ending what’s been a miserable run in a very particular way.

“I don’t think we’re going into this game like, ‘We can’t lose nine out of 10,’” Hamilton said. “We’re just trying to win this one game and take it one week at a time, and I know you all hear that a lot from us, but it’s really true. We have one-week lives, kind of, and last week, we were all about the Giants and got that win. Now, we’re all about the Steelers, and whatever comes next.”

Which begs the question: Can the Ravens solve their Steelers riddle, or will it be more of the same?

“[Pittsburgh coach Mike] Tomlin, I feel like he wants to just keep the game close, keep the game close and then win it at the end,” Humphrey said. “Honestly, that strategy works pretty well when they play us.”

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.