And there’s one more rule that the head coach abides by with his inner circle.
“I’ve got a rule: I never, ever, ever hold a grudge,” Harbaugh said. “And I kind of have a rule that nobody else is allowed to hold a grudge, either. There are no grudges. We’re a bunch of guys. We don’t hold grudges. Right? We move on.”
How bad could that dust up have really been? The Ravens were 4-0 since the day Harbaugh relented on the pads.
o – o – o
8
THE RAVENS HAD THEIR FEET on the throat of the Steelers. With a three-game lead and an opportunity to deal them a sixth loss playing against and aged, third-string quarterback in Baltimore – well, what more could you ask for heading into December?
Baltimore was still in the throes of the excitement surrounding the miracle 4th & 29 play by Ray Rice in San Diego. Local stores were selling “Hey Diddle, Diddle, Ray Rice up the Middle” T-shirts by the middle of the week. This was the first time the Baltimore media got a hold of the “team of destiny” line of questioning after watching the most unlikely victory in team history unfold from 3,000 miles away on a Sunday evening.
In an organization where its scouts look to specifically draft players who have overcome major adversity in life, it should come as no surprise that the Ravens didn’t quit in San Diego.
When Harbaugh was asked what made his team so special and how they could keep hope alive on a 4th & 29 play, he said, “It’s the way they deal with adversity. To me, it didn’t begin on Sunday. We always talk about beginnings and starting points, and the starting point of that idea was probably the AFC Championship game last year and the way our team was in the locker room. And that had started long before that moment, too, where the team was at that point to handle that adversity. And then to let that brew for the whole offseason and through training camp and to build on that and to build on the adversity that we faced throughout the season and to become better through all of that – that’s what I’m talking about.”
He was asked, bluntly, if the win in San Diego made him feel like the Ravens were a “team of destiny.”
“That notion comes up after they win,” Harbaugh said. “So, you talk about how special a team is after they win the Super Bowl – this team was a team of destiny. It’s hard to pick out the teams of destiny until destiny expresses itself. I don’t know about all of that. They are special because of the way they interact with each other – that’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the way they handle adversity, the way they work with each other, the way they care about one another – all those intangible things that it’s really hard to quantify, and everybody just kind of wants to shrug their shoulders at and say, ‘What is that?’
8“If you have ever been on a team – like most of us have at one point in time or another – you really have a feel for that, and you kind of know what that means. When you’re inside of that, that’s what you try to express somehow. It’s hard to explain, but that’s what I’m talking about.”
Charlie Batch had dealt with plenty of adversity as well and knew all about being a team player. It was the story of his life. The Steelers quarterback was three days shy of his 38th birthday and as a hometown Pittsburgh kid from Munhall Steel Valley High, he was in his 11th season as a perennial backup after getting a chance to start in parts of four years for the Detroit Lions from 1998 through 2001. He was a second-round draft pick who was 15 years deep into a career and had two Super Bowl rings from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Given the rare chance to start and having played poorly in Cleveland, Batch talked all week about how important it was for him to play well in Roethlisberger’s absence so the Steelers would have a chance to compete in January. Batch was a team guy, just holding the reigns until the $90 million quarterback could get back under center. The Steelers had been without Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu for two months, and he was also returning because of the significance of the game in Baltimore for a 6-5 team that was scrapping.
A loss would all but end the Steelers’ season. A win for the Ravens here would clinch a playoff berth and keep the Ravens in the running for a bye and the No. 1 seed in the AFC. As Terrell Suggs so often tweets, “Why run through the wall when you can use the door?”
No doubt the door was a win at home. The wall is what is left of what were the remains of a crumbling Steel Curtain defense of Dick Lebeau as the Steelers limped into Baltimore with their season on life support.
Harbaugh was succinct and summed it all up before the game: “If you love football, there is no better rivalry than the Ravens and Steelers. We are always excited to play them. We respect them and love playing against them. When we play them, they are the best weeks of the season – for the teams and the fans. The games always mean so much to each team, and we kind of define ourselves by how we play in these games. We love playing them. We love the preparation that goes into them. They’ve got a veteran team that we know is going to do everything it can to beat us. You have to love this week.”
The Ravens and Steelers traded field goals early, and the Steelers did a job on a defensive red zone stop forcing another Justin Tucker 23-yard kick giving the Ravens a 6-3 lead. Flacco hit Anquan Boldin in the corner of the end zone to extend the Ravens’ lead to 13-3 before the Steelers answered with another late field goal from Shaun Suisham to make it a one score game at the half.
8Batch showed his lunch pail mentality early in the third quarter when he ran as a lead blocker for running back Jonathan Dwyer on a 16-yard TD run, blocking Cary Williams all the way into the end zone, tying the game 13-13.
The Steelers defense had been sturdy for much of the afternoon, but Ray Rice managed to get loose on the left side, beating the entire secondary to the end zone on a 34-yard TD run giving the Ravens a 20-13 lead headed into the fourth quarter.
Ed Reed dove in front of a deep pass from Batch intended for tight end Heath Miller thwarting an early Steelers drive. Three plays later, Flacco was hit from behind by James Harrison, fumbling the ball into the arms of Steelers defensive lineman Ziggy Hood. Taking over at the Baltimore 27, four plays later Batch hit Miller for a 7-yard TD strike and the game was tied 20-20 with 7:24 remaining.
Flacco missed on three consecutive throws on the next possession, and Sam Koch backed the Steelers up to their 15-yard line with 6:14 remaining.
Batch, the old veteran, then seized the spotlight, driving the Steelers methodically down the field on a 12-play drive that milked the clock and moved the ball. At the two-minute warning, Ravens defensive end Paul Kruger was called for roughing the passer on Batch, moving the Steelers into field goal range.
As time expired, Suisham hit a 43-yard field goal to beat the Ravens in Baltimore.
There was an awkward handshake between Harbaugh and Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin immediately following the game that was captured on live television. Tomlin, who is full of bravado, was pulled back by Harbaugh and forced to make brief eye contact, the Steelers coach pulled away and it certainly didn’t make for a cozy moment for the audience. Tomlin later said there was “nothing really unusual” about the exchange other than the fact that he was in a hurry.
“As I moved toward the middle of the field, I noticed to my left the number of guys that were headed toward our locker room,” Tomlin told reporters a few days later. “Maybe that happens all the time, but given the amount of effort it took to get out of that stadium with a win, I wanted to get there as quickly as I could. It’s a normal practice for me to welcome guys into the locker room and thank them for their efforts after games and, really, the results of games don’t matter. It’s a general practice for me, but obviously, it took special effort to secure that victory, and when I noticed that guys were headed to the locker room I was in a hurry to get there.”
