Much of the focus this week has been devoted to the Ravens' rivalry with wide receiver Hines Ward, who has been accused of delivering several cheap shots over the years. Meanwhile, Holmes has done more damage to the Ravens' vaunted defense than Ward. In five games against Baltimore, Holmes has averaged 78 receiving yards per contest and has caught five touchdowns. Earlier this season, Holmes dashed past Washington for a critical 38-yard touchdown catch. Holmes is coming off an 82-yard receiving game against the Dallas Cowboys for his fourth-best total of the season. Holmes and Washington will be two of the fastest players on the field today. It's important that Washington jam Holmes at the line of scrimmage to prevent him from reaching top speed quickly to get into his patterns. Holmes has emerged as a better all-around receiver over the past two seasons. Washington is having a strong season, but needs to catch the football better to create some turnovers. Ben Roethlisberger is expected to try to go back to Holmes after experiencing success in the first meeting. 

THREE DOWNS WITH ...

Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis

1. On the Steelers not winning in Baltimore since 2002: "Wow, you just helped me out with that one. That’s one I’m new about. I kind of knew about it, but haven’t researched it like that. At the same time, not just them, we just like playing at home.

"When you get a game of this magnitude, for whatever it’s worth, playing at home is always big. Now, we have them coming back in. Of course, there’s a lot on the line, but, for us, it’s just another game: 60 minutes. We’re going to try to play the way we’ve been playing all year and see what happens when the clock hits zeros.”

2. On playing for the division title: "Realistically, you really can’t ask for a better scenario, period, no matter who it was. And that’s the approach, me being the leader and trying to keep these guys focused, it does not matter who we’re playing.

"The bottom line is, let’s go play our game for 60 minutes and when the clock hits triple zeros, let’s see where we are. So, bottom line, whatever goes on this weekend, if we go out and give our best, that’s all we can ask for, really.”

3. On if he look s at the statistical rankings: "No, because if you do, and this has been for years for me, even the year that we won the Super Bowl, we got into that battle with Tennessee: ' We’re No. 1, they’re No. 1,' all that.

"It means nothing at the end of the day. The bottom line is you’ve got two good defenses coming in, and the game is going to be played and one side is going to win, one side is going to lose. If you get caught up in all those numbers, it’s going to sooner or later get you in trouble.”

THREE DOWNS WITH ...

Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison

1. On being cut by the Ravens four years ago:  "I don’t feel anybody was unfair in the way they treated me, and everybody makes decisions on what they have and what they have to do. The reason they said they let me go was that they needed a tight end.

"The tight end they picked up was Daniel Wilcox. We played in NFL Europe together, and he is still there. They obviously needed a tight end. I don’t point fault at anybody, but that’s just part of the game. Just like the Steelers cut me three times, and here I am now.”

2. On the nature of this game: "You’ve got two of the top defenses in the NFL that are about to get a chance to get at each other’s offenses come Sunday. The defense, I believe, t hat outplays the other one will be the defense and the team that wins this game. You’re not going to have a shootout. It’s not going to be a 30, 40-point game.”

3. On Steelers safety Troy Polamalu: "Listen here, Troy is amazing. He’s really unbelievable. Things that I’ve seen him do on tape where he’ll be all the way down in the box and he’ll have deep pass, and he’ll still get out there. To have Troy in there disguising the look for coverages is really helpful.”