Ravens’ Terrell Suggs has sights set on Big Ben

The No. 1 task of Baltimore’s Terrell Suggs isn’t simple, but it’s pretty straightforward.

He exists to stop Ben Roethlisberger.

That’s what the outspoken Ravens outside linebacker said this week on the NFL Network’s “Around the League.”

“Ravens-Steelers. My rival. I like to think that I exist because they need someone to stop Big Ben,” Suggs said in an interview about Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh. Suggs said. “So, yeah, we’re like Smith and Neo from ‘The Matrix.’ Coexist for each other — Joker and Batman.”

No active player has sacked Roethlisberger more than Suggs, who has brought him down 10½ times. Three of those came in the opener, when the Ravens rolled over the Steelers at home, 35-7.

Roethlisberger is so big and strong, he can shed would-be tacklers better than most quarterbacks and extend plays that otherwise look doomed. But Suggs is bigger and stronger.

“If there’s anybody who can bring him down by themselves, it’s definitely me,” Suggs said on a conference call last week. “I’m pretty sure he’s going to have something in store to make sure I don’t have a good day, but so does everybody in the NFL. So I’m just going to show up to play.”

In the opener, it was left tackle Jonathan Scott protecting Roethlisberger’s blind side. This time, it will be Max Starks, who knows Suggs well as they regularly worked out in the off-season at the same training facility in Arizona.

“Like him? Not so much, but I respect him as a player,” Starks told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of Suggs.

On the conference call, Suggs was asked if he expects the Ravens to beat the Steelers.

“I expect to,” he said. “Who plans to lose?”