Steelers Beat Ravens To Remain Atop The AFC North

The Pittsburgh Steelers have moved to 8-2 on the season after they defeated their bitter rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, 18-16, in a game which kept Mike Tomlin’s team on top of the AFC North heading into week 12.  

Coming into this game, the Ravens were scoring more points than anyone in the league, with 31.8 points per game. The Steelers under Russell Wilson weren’t doing too badly either, with a 3-0 record and over 30 points per game with the Super Bowl XLVIII winning quarterback as their starter. So, naturally, this game had both teams scoring under twenty points, with the winning team not finding the endzone even once.

Pittsburgh’s win means that Lamar Jackson’s bad run against his biggest rival continues. The two-time MVP is now 1-4 against Mike Tomlin’s team and in those games has just five touchdowns, and eight interceptions. Jackson is 63-18 in all other games he has started and finished in the regular season.

A lot of the headlines after this game will be how the Ravens hurt themselves with their penalties, missed kicks, and turnovers. While that may be true, the Steelers deserve enormous credit for forcing a lot of these mistakes. It is not a coincidence that Nick Herbig chased down Derrick Henry on the first play of the game and forced the ball loose, that is great pursuit from a talented young player to force Henry’s first fumble in more than five-hundred rush attempts. It was not a coincidence that Patrick Queen, an offseason addition from the Ravens, ripped the ball from Isaiah Likely towards the end of the first half and recovered it himself. That is a great player making another great play. It is not a coincidence that Payton Wilson made one of the interceptions of the year, ripping the ball away from Justice Hill while in pass coverage. That is once again, an exciting young talent making a great play. A lot of these plays also come from coaching. Mike Tomlin said in his postgame press conference that him and Wilson ‘were talking all week about his matchup with 43 (Justice Hill)… (Payton) needed to be prepared, we worked him all week in terms of that matchup, that rail route that he picked off’.

In terms of the missed kicks, Justin Tucker is one of the greatest kickers of all time but was outshone by Chris Boswell. This is the ultimate team sport, kickers are a part of the team, and Boswell showed how important a part they play with his six field goals, making three of them from fifty plus yards out. Tucker, meanwhile, showed the importance of kickers in the opposite fashion, missing two kicks that for years were so routine for him. This was a team win from the Steelers, and while it might not have been pretty at times, they won as a unit and the Ravens lost as a unit.  

The three turnovers were some of the biggest plays for the Steelers defense, but their most important play was with one minute and six seconds left on the clock. With Pittsburgh leading 18-16 after Jackson had found Zay Flowers for a touchdown, the defense stepped up big time to stop a two-point conversion. In his postgame press conference, Lamar said the play was a designed quarterback run, though it looked as if he may have been looking for a receiver in the endzone. Either way, Nick Herbig got the play off schedule immediately with his speed and power off the snap, which was followed by Joey Porter Jr. making the all-important tackle to force an incompletion as Jackson desperately looked for a teammate to catch the ball. This was yet another example of players stepping up when they need to. Nick Herbig, who was returning from an injury earlier this season, made a massive play at the start of the game, and made a huge play at the end to contribute to a win. Joey Porter Jr., who has had his struggles at times this season, stepped up when it mattered most, keeping his eyes on the best running quarterback in NFL history to make the game-saving play.  

Those were the main positives from the game. The defense and Chris Boswell. Now, although this was a team win, the offense must be addressed.

Firstly, the offense did enough to win. The gameplan was to rely on the defense and Boswell, and only take risks if they had to be taken. Russell Wilson and the offense executed that gameplan perfectly except for on one play, a third and goal interception from Wilson when he escaped a sack and floated the ball to the back of the endzone. Maybe Darnell Washington could have made a play on the ball, but either way it was a poor decision by Pittsburgh’s quarterback with the score being 15-10 to the Steelers at the time.

Other than that, the offense was clean. Of course, there are concerns. Wilson was sacked four times and had maybe his worst game so far in a Steelers uniform and had it against the worst pass defense in the league. Going four out of sixteen on third down is never going to help either and nine points from four redzone trips is abysmal but, plays were made at crucial times, even by the offense. Late in the third quarter, with the Steelers up 12-10, a holding penalty on Broderick Jones left the Steelers in a difficult 2nd and 15 situation. But a play was made at an important time. Wilson found Pickens down the left sideline with a beautiful pass to give the Steelers a 1st and 10 at the Ravens’ 12-yard line after a 37-yard gain. Yes, only a field goal came from that drive, but Wilson and the offense did make big plays at important times.

After the big two-point conversion stop, the Ravens did not onside kick the ball, they gave the Steelers the ball back at their own thirty and tried to stop the offense. Justin Fields was put in the game and although he slid just short of a win on a 2nd and 10 run, he gave Najee Harris a chance to seal the victory with a 3rd and 1 run, a chance which Harris took.

There are obvious issues that need to be addressed with the offensive side of the ball but anyone who thought this would be a shootout was kidding themselves. The way the Steelers have played the last five seasons, and with this game being at home, against the Ravens, Mike Tomlin wanted the matchup to be played this way because his team knows how to win this way and win, they did.

Now, this is the part which Steelers fans won’t like. As big of a win that was, it should not change anyone’s perspective about the Steelers. Because of this win against the possible MVP and one of the best teams in the league, the national media will now be calling Pittsburgh contenders all week. But, in truth, this win does not mean they are contenders. That is not to say that Tomlin’s team isn’t contenders, but it is more to say that no matter the situation going into this game, it would have been close. The Steelers beating the Ravens at home and neutralising Lamar Jackson was not a surprise to anyone that has watched this team the last five years, or anyone that watches the AFC North at all.

What will tell us about Pittsburgh’s ceiling this year is their games against contenders who are less familiar foes. The game across state at Lincoln Financial Field against the Eagles and the game at home on Christmas day against the back-to-back champions, the Chiefs, will tell us if the Steelers can compete until the very end this season.

Other than that, it is five division games left, and although the Bengals are 4-7, and the Browns are 2-8, every single one of those games will be a battle because the AFC North is the toughest division in the league, no matter who has what record. The Steelers now have a short week before they are on the road to the Browns, and that has trap game written all over it. If the Steelers want the AFC North crown, they can’t afford any poor performances as their lead over the Ravens is only 1.5 games and every remaining matchup will be a battle, so they need to be ready for Cleveland.