Harbaugh said Monday that he felt fine about the handshake and “there was nothing uncomfortable at all” about it, but you got the sense that they didn’t like each other.
There are plenty of fans in Baltimore and Pittsburgh who don’t like shaking hands after these emotional affairs as well. It was a win that kept the Steelers postseason hopes alive. It was a loss that irked the Ravens, but would far from extinguish their playoff hopes, now at 9-3.
No one really believed that the Ravens could lose to Charlie Batch, but at this point the Ravens were still a Jekyll and Hyde act from week to week. They had just lost at home to a senior citizen, third-string quarterback and still had trouble moving the ball. The starting quarterback allowed a sack and strip deep that cost them the lead. The defense allowed Batch to go the length of the field with the game on the line.
When the Ravens coaches put on the film from the Steelers game, they saw a team working hard, improving, but still inconsistent. And they certainly saw a team loss.
The pass protection wasn’t great. The offensive line was struggling, and Flacco was getting hit. There was a sense that the offense was getting predictable and that the Steelers knew what they were doing. One advantage the Steelers had in using Batch was that the Ravens defense didn’t have a good sense of what the Pittsburgh game plan would be.
Flacco had become more of a pocket QB. He wasn’t outside making plays, and it just wasn’t clicking. Too many three-and-outs. Too many punts.
While the defense had been giving up way too much yardage, it was solid in the red zone, forcing field goals in lieu of touchdowns for the most part. The red zone is about instinct, scheme, and physicality. As the field shrinks, the Ravens had some inherent advantages in the red zone on defense. But, the surrendering of yardage and the imbalance in time of possession was disturbing.
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Injuries were still an issue. Suggs left the Steelers game with an arm injury. Linebacker Dannell Ellerbe and cornerback Jimmy Smith were also out. Getting healthy and getting better were the mindset of a 9-3 team headed just 45 minutes south to take on the Washington Redskins in a I-95 matchup that the fans only get to savor every four years because of the NFL schedule rotation.
Baltimore vs. Washington is always very complicated. The rivalry that exists between the cities – if there is one – exists mainly on one side of the fence. Most D.C. sports fans aren’t as deeply entrenched, and if they’re older than a teenager, they probably spent most of their lives driving to Baltimore to see the Cal Ripken-era Orioles over the years and actually have more of an affinity for the Charm City sports scene than disdain.
In Baltimore, however, it’s a very different story.
Baltimore loved its Colts for the better part of two decades of glory when the George Preston Marshall-era of the Redskins mostly stunk. The Redskins were horrible for decades, as were the Senators in baseball. Baltimore had Orioles championships and Colts trophies and sports legends to embrace. All of that changed in the mid-1970s when the Colts began to falter and the Joe Gibbs era began for the Redskins. The Skins became the model franchise in the sport. Super Bowl titles, Hall of Fame players, and sold out crowds defined the 1980s for the Washington Redskins. Unfortunately, Bob Irsay defined the Baltimore Colts.
