Just as advertised, when first place is on the line in the AFC North on a late autumn day at The Confluence, we got the old-school, almost-schoolyard-at-times brawl we expected with the bullies in black and gold out over those Western Pennsylvania hills.
This game was about defense. And discipline. And the small things, like making field goals.
Sure, if Justin Tucker was perfect on the Three Shivers shield on Sunday, the math would’ve added up to a Baltimore Ravens’ victory. But instead this 18-16 defeat stands out for everything that wasn’t nearly perfect enough that allowed a proud, well-coached team like the Pittsburgh Steelers to beat you on their home turf when the real home turf in January is on the line and “Renegade” and T.J. Watt is blaring down on you.
The jig is up, indeed, and the Baltimore Ravens were far from home with those Terrible Towels whirling up a gold hurricane but Lamar Jackson still led a touchdown drive that provided hope.
But the Steelers’ defense was quite disruptive and sticky all afternoon against Lamar – and especially his receivers. There were fights and flags, injuries and recoveries, and the kinds of vicious hits that are the hallmark of this rivalry.
And when the game was on the line, Roquan Smith was unavailable – and the Ravens’ already vulnerable defense lost a game on six field goals allowed whilst it lost a grasp of the top spot in the AFC North and took on a gruesome fourth loss. Now, they’re headed to Hollywood next Monday for another HarBowl in LaLa land amidst plenty of questions about their worthiness as a Super Bowl contender of balance and merit.
Here’s what the national talking heads will be saying from SoFi next Monday with SVP and crew on ESPN:
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The Baltimore Ravens are not playing smart football. The lack of discipline across the board has reared its head and leaves them as indistinct as their 7-4 mark headed to face to the Chargers.
They are the most penalized team in the NFL. And continually adding to the resume.
They have earned the distinction of the 32nd-ranked team against the pass. Somehow, the Steelers even managed to run for 122 yards on them on Sunday.
And Derrick Henry turned the ball over in Pittsburgh and then was banished to invisible on a two-point conversion attempt with the game on the line after being less than called upon when the team was in double-digit yardage situations far too many times from the sloppiness of the offensive operation.
Hello, Todd Monken???
You’ll hear head coach John Harbaugh (and every other player in his locker room) say: “We gotta play smart!”
And Derrick Henry wasn’t involved on the two-point conversation?
8And then the penalties that buried the offense in bad down and distances – and punts in several cases – that created zero mojo or momentum for anything Lamar Jackson was trying to do from a busy pocket, with holds and jumps a plenty. The ineligible man downfield thing has to be better coached.
All of it does…
“We killed ourselves,” Lamar Jackson said several times on the podium after the loss. “Each and every drive. That’s crazy!”
Self-inflicted trauma, no doubt, but make no mistake about it: that Pittsburgh Steelers defense was the real deal. Formidable, star-laden, non-stop in its pursuit of Lamar Jackson and its stuffing of Derrick Henry and stripping of Justice Hill.
For now, it was Patrick Queen > King Henry in Pittsburgh in Round One. I preached all week that these division teams that see The Lamar Show more often (and spend all offseason having nightmares about it) come far more prepared to quell it – especially when the offensive line gifts a penalty on every drive.
Round Two in the best rivalry in North American sports comes later in December in a flurry of weird games and timing for the Ravens around the holidays. Circle Saturday, December 21st in downtown Baltimore.
Let’s hope Zay Flowers catches it when it hits him between the “fah” and the “ore” next time. And maybe Derrick Henry will be on the field on the biggest play of the game?
8And the civic chickens playing recall on Justin Tucker have smelled the RoFo coffee and know that he’s going to the Hall of Fame but being the GOAT and being the “goat” are about 97 yards away when you miss a pair of 47 and 50 field goals that were thought to be automatic the past dozen years.
Final score: Ravens 22, Steelers 18 would’ve satisfied a lot of Ravens fans (and bets, but no one knew the spread was three, right?)
Sure, Justin Tucker is still “capable” but is he reliable? That’s for John Harbaugh to figure out but he’s not the only reason the Ravens lost on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson gifted Marlon Humphrey an interception that erased three points for the Steelers as well.
As they say, it’s football. On the two-point conversion – the only play that mattered at the time – the Steelers made a play to flush Lamar out and cover the backside to win a game at home. The guys in black and gold have “made a play” when it mattered eight out of the last nine times these rivals have met in a era when the Ravens have had the better personnel in virtually all of them not started by Snoop Huntley.
They are the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s Mister Russell Wilson, Super Bowl MVP and champion to you.
The second-place Baltimore Ravens are 7-4 and there will be questions about injuries and momentum and discipline. And there should be.
This isn’t good enough to win a Super Bowl right now.
This might not even be good enough to win a playoff game on the road, where they might very well be in a wildcard round on the first weekend.
And that sentence makes every Baltimore Orioles fan a little itchy after our summer around here.
