PITTSBURGH — The animosity is still there bubbling just underneath the surface.

Forgive the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, though, if the current state of their longstanding rivalry is the least of their growing list of concerns.

The teams that sprint onto Heinz Field on Thursday night will be fighting for something other than AFC North supremacy. They’ll be scrapping for relevance.

The Ravens (0-3) are off to their worst start since the franchise moved to Baltimore two decades ago. Pittsburgh’s potent offense was sizzling until the moment Ben Roethlisberger’s left knee bent awkwardly underneath him last Sunday in St. Louis.

If the Steelers (2-1) want to keep pace behind unbeaten Cincinnati they’ll have to do it with Michael Vick under center. If the Ravens want to avoid a hole few teams have escaped to make the playoffs, they’ll need a defense seemingly lost without injured linebacker and unquestioned leader Terrell Suggs.

“We have a lot of things we can accomplish this year, we just have to play better,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “We have to play better in critical situations.”

It’s something the Steelers did — barely — after Roethlisberger sprained his MCL and suffered a bone bruise in the third quarter against the Rams. Pittsburgh’s defense made enough plays to preserve a 12-6 win.

Given all of two practices to work with the starters, Vick believes he can be effective..

“I can’t go out there and try to improvise in a short week and change things around,” Vick said. “We have a ton of good things in our offense, and we have to go out there and work.”

Baltimore has long relied on backing up a solid defense with an effective running game, but the formula has gone awry thus far this season. After rushing for a career-high 1,266 yards in 2014, Justin Forsett has only 124 this season — including 13 on 10 carries last week against Cincinnati.

“Running the ball is, obviously, very important to our offense,” Harbaugh said. “I will say this: Pittsburgh’s defense is good at stopping the run. All year we’ve played good run defenses, and these guys are in that same category.”

Roethlisberger is hoping he can ditch the crutches he’s been hauling around since Sunday so he can stand on the sideline and serve as a sounding board for Vick, making just his fourth start in the past 23 months.

“I want to be there, because I want to be able to communicate with him and with my line,” Roethlisberger said.

Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith was so embarrassed by A.J. Green last week that he declined to talk about it afterward, saying he was emotionally spent after Cincinnati’s wideout caught 10 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns.

His job doesn’t get any easier Thursday against Antonio Brown.