With 23-16 win, Steelers reverse early-season home loss to Ravens.
Sunday, November 4, 2018, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – The Ravens enter their bye week with their season on the brink. The team’s usual October swoon–a 1-3 stretch after a 3-1 start–seems more damaging this time around, reportedly putting John Harbaugh’s job in jeopardy.
It’s a stark reversal from what was expected from this time. A slew of offseason acquisitions–including three new wide receivers and a 12-player draft class that tied the team record for the largest April haul–brought optimism and the strong feeling that the two-time Super Bowl champions could return to the postseason.
That attitude is gone. An unexpected loss at Cleveland, a gut-wrenching come-from-ahead home defeat to New Orleans, and a thoroughly dispiriting defeat at Carolina had players, coaches, and fans wondering if the Ravens could manage to reach the break-even mark.
Sunday’s home loss to Pittsburgh just made matters worse.
It was a crucial game that the Ravens let get away. Injuries, depth issues, and a tired defense conspired to yield a 23-16 defeat in front of 70,997 sun-splashed fans.
“You always feel pressure,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a pressure league. I thought we’d be 7-2 at this point…. “We’re going to look hard at what we can do…. We have got to find a way to score touchdowns in the red zone.”
It was the third straight loss for Baltimore (4-5) and fourth in its last five games after the team started the year at 3-1 start.
The game was the first of the Ravens’ three intradivisional return matches, all of which will be played at home for only the second time in team history (and the first time since 2007). That year, the Ravens’ team-record nine-game losing streak and subsequent firing of head coach Brian Billick rendered moot a huge scheduling advantage.
This time around, Pittsburgh (5-2-1) used its better overall health and depth to reverse Baltimore’s huge possession-time average in its 26-14 Week Four win at Pittsburgh. On Sunday, the Steelers held the ball for 36:29 and converted ten of 16 third-down plays.
After the off-week, Baltimore returns to division play with the second of three straight home games, when it faces the Cincinnati Bengals (Sunday, November 18, 1 p.m.; WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM). The Ravens are 15-7 in post-bye games in team history, but that might not matter this year.
The Ravens were facing Pittsburgh for a team-opponent-record 50th time (including postseason) and the pseudo-golden-anniversary game featured a Baltimore team going for a fourth season sweep of the Steelers and its first since 2015. The team had to be further buoyed by the fact that they were at home in November, a month that has seen them play to an NFL-best 30-12 under Harbaugh, who was going for his 99th career regular-season win.
But, in reality, the Ravens played more like their old October selves. Baltimore, which at one point this year had the league’s top scoring defense, had allowed 53 points over a five-quarter span before the Steelers piled it on early and often.
One reason is that Baltimore had to work without starting tackles Ronnie Stanley (out with an ankle problem) and James Hurst (fighting a back ailment). Those losses hampered the Ravens’ ability to make the most of their scoring chances. The result? The Steelers consistently cashed in.
With second-year man Jermaine Eluemunor filling in for Stanley and with Orlando Brown, Jr. taking Hurst’s spot, the Ravens drove 66 yards to the Steelers’ 5. But when quarterback Joe Flacco (23-for-37, 209 yards, two sacks, 77.4 rating) didn’t see a wide-open Lamar Jackson in the end zone, Justin Tucker’s 23-yard field goal had to serve as the game’s first points.
The Steelers–with a healthier line and better rhythm–didn’t miss their chance. Pittsburgh took a good kickoff return and moved 61 yards on nine plays, using running back James Conner (who had just 44 total yards in the teams’ first meeting), for a seven-yard swing pass out of the backfield. He outran Eric Weddle to the pylon for the go-ahead touchdown late in the first quarter, the first receiving score of his career.
Conner marked his territory right from the start, gaining 37 yards on his first three carries. The Steelers capitalized on his momentum.
Conner had gained over 100 yards in each of the team’s last three games (all wins), and he totally dominated the Ravens with 107 yards on 24 carries and 56 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown.
Conner became the first running back to gain 100 yards against the Ravens in 17 games and the first since Minnesota’s Latavius Murray midway through last season.
The Ravens, on the other hand, didn’t look smooth. Flacco was hit on consecutive plays, first by Stephon Tuitt and, then, by Cameron Heyward, which lead to hip and back discomfort. However, running back Alex Collins looked impressive by running the ball despite a foot problem and Chris Moore made a great leaping 30-yard catch that led to the field goal.
It was a respite only. Roethlisberger (28-for-47, 270 yards, two touchdowns, one sack, 89.8 rating) managed to keep his broken non-throwing finger out of harm’s way against a Ravens team leading the NFL with 27 sacks. He executed short passes against a rotating set of Ravens corners, including the newly-healthy Marlon Humphrey. Humphrey worked with Brandon Carr and Jimmy Smith to try to cover Pittsburgh’s passel of receivers.
But it was Conner, again, who hurt the Ravens. He keyed a 75-yard, 12-play drive that also featured a six-yard Juju Smith-Schuster (78 yards, seven catches) catch on fourth-and-1. Top receiver Antonio Brown (42 yards, five catches, touchdown) finished it off with a six-yard touchdown play as he broke tackling attempts by Humphrey and Tavon Young. The outcome? The Steelers took control early in the second quarter, 14-3.
The Ravens showed some signs of life when John Brown was interfered with on a sideline pass. That resulted in a 33-yard gain. But, as in the team’s first sustained drive, Flacco missed a wide-open receiver when a pass bounced off Michael Crabtree’s hands. Tucker then kicked another 23-yard field goal, making it 14-6.
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The half ended with the same, old story for the Ravens and for the Steelers. Baltimore didn’t force a turnover (the streak is now at 17 straight quarters) and Pittsburgh was in front for the eighth time in as many games (the only NFL team to do that).
And the third quarter began with evidence why those patterns were a harbinger of doom for the Ravens and their rapidly-deteriorating season. Pittsburgh converted three third-down plays and drove 75 yards on 15 plays, eating up eight minutes, and scoring on a Roethlisberger one-yard sneak. Chris Boswell followed with his fourth extra-point miss of the year for a 20-6 lead.
The Ravens then came to life with an 11-play drive of their own, aided by sloppy Steelers’ defense. A pass-interference call in the end zone put the ball on the 1. Collins then went around right end to cut the lead to seven.
When Pittsburgh went on offense, Za’Darius Smith landed on Roethlisberger’s right shoulder, forcing him out of the game with what turned out to be a wind-knocked-out situation. Backup Joshua Dobbs came in with Pittsburgh needing 22 yards for a first down. What looked like a promising situation for Baltimore, turned into Smith-Schuster’s diving 23-yard catch to keep the drive going. Then tight end Jesse James shook loose along the right sideline for 51 more yards for the longest play against the Ravens this year.
The Roethlisberger-less plays set up Boswell’s 29-yard field goal, which gave the Steelers a ten-point lead with just over eight minutes to play.
Tucker was able to cut the lead to seven again, 23-16, with a 37-yard field goal at the 5:23 mark. But that’s as close as the Ravens would get. Pittsburgh converted two third-down plays on its final possession as the Ravens burned all three timeouts, leaving none for a last-ditch drive.
It also appears Baltimore has nothing left of its season. For the slumping Ravens, the apparent good-bye to 2018’s quest may say hello to quite a few changes.
