Late two-point play fails, Baltimore now 8-4.
Pittsburgh, PA, Sunday, December 5, 2021. It looked as though the tale as old as time was getting a reboot. The story, of course, is that of the Baltimore-Pittsburgh football rivalry, one of tough, physical play – some of which has gone WELL beyond the whistles – close games, low scores, colorful quotes, and tense moments.
In 2021, the Ravens have played enough fingernail-chewing games to open a cuticle dispensary. But this year, they did not find the Steelers joined at their hip anymore. The parity-ridden NFL world eventually takes all 32 of its teams on a rollercoaster ride that separates them, and it appears the Steelers had plummeted down the kind of steep downhill gradient where no one throws up their hands and screams for joy. Meanwhile, Ravens fans have enjoyed the slow, gradual ride towards the top of the hill, even though it has been a bumpy one at best.
Still, anyone will tell you that it is preferable to be on top in this scenario, and the Steelers remarkably found themselves there with a season-saving 20-19 win over the visiting Ravens before 59,303 delirious Heinz Field fans.
The Ravens have fought off many demons this fall: inconsistent offense, injuries, turnovers, slow starts, and a leaky defense to not only rise to the top of the ultra-tough AFC North Division but to gain separation from their three feisty Rust Belt neighbors with six regular-season games remaining. As they continue their attempt to win their seventh lifetime AFC North title – and their third in four years, bringing them to within two crowns of the Steelers’ division-leading nine – the Ravens (8-4) managed to maintain a one-game division lead over the Cincinnati Bengals, who lost at home to the Los Angeles Chargers earlier on Sunday.
For the moment, the loss also dropped Baltimore from the top AFC playoff seed to the No. 3 seed, still guaranteeing them a home game if the season ends this way, but without the first-round bye that the top seed provides.
The end-of-season intradivisional gauntlet the league schedule-makers have provided continues this week with the quick-turnaround return match against the Cleveland Browns, this time on the road (Sunday, December 12, 1 p.m.). The Browns will be coming off their bye, the second Ravens opponent this year to have two weeks to prepare for Baltimore.
On this Sunday, Pittsburgh (6-5-1) scored 17 fourth-quarter points to pull off the win, including a game-winning five-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Diontae Johnson with just under two minutes to go. With one timeout remaining, Jackson engineered a hasty drive with passes to Marquise Brown, Devin Duvernay, and Sammy Watkins before finding Watkins with a six-yard touchdown toss in the back of the end zone with 12 seconds remaining. A near-certain Justin Tucker point-after would tie the game.
Head coach John Harbaugh opted to go for two points and the win. Jackson had tight end Mark Andrews open in the right flat. But the pass trickled off his fingertips, the Steelers recovered the onside kick (the Ravens haven’t recovered one of their own such kicks since 2001 at Green Bay) and knelt for the win.
Andrews was reportedly four and a half yards away from the nearest defender and could have walked into the end zone untouched. “(We wanted to) try and win the game right there,” Harbaugh said of his decision. “We were pretty much out of corners at that point in time. It’s that close; it’s a game of inches.” And Nose tackle Brandon Williams defended the decision: “We believe in (Jackson). We’d do that play 1000 more times.”
Baltimore, the NFL time-of-possession leader, only bolstered its reputation in that department by holding the ball for over 36 minutes of the game, including a mind-boggling 23 in a first half that saw Pittsburgh stuck in the mud early in the game and possessing the ball for only six minutes in the first half, a record low under 15th-year head coach Mike Tomlin. Meanwhile, the Ravens had control of the game, but not a stranglehold, a fact that would prove fatal to their chances.
On the game’s opening drive, the Ravens held the ball for over six minutes, ran 11 plays, but saw it end when Jackson threw off his back foot trying to find Andrews in the end zone and saw his pass picked off by Minkah Fitzpatrick. It’s the career-high fourth straight game in which Jackson has thrown at least one interception.
After the Ravens and Steelers played to the first-ever scoreless opening quarter in the rivalry’s history, Baltimore launched a 99-yard touchdown drive that took up most of the second period, its third such drive in the past two seasons and the first-ever 99-yard drive in the history of this rivalry. As usual, Andrews was huge, catching a ten-yard pass to keep the chains moving, then a 29-yarder to get the ball down to the 3. From there, Davonta Freeman scored to ca the 16-play jaunt that took nearly ten and a half minutes.
But the Ravens’ offense, while greedy with the ball, couldn’t finish any more drives like that, as the Steelers unleased four first-half sacks and the Fitzpatrick pickoff to keep the game close. Jackson has now committed eight turnovers and been sacked 16 times in three career starts against Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh registered seven sacks; former Baltimore draftee Chris Wormley had 2.5 – the same amount he had during his time with the Ravens – and All-Pro rush end TJ Watt, only activated on Saturday after passing COVID protocol, tallied 3.5 takedowns. And Johnson could have tied the game for Pittsburgh before halftime, but he dropped a sure touchdown pass while being covered by Anthony Averett, so kicker Chris Boswell’s 53-yard field goal brought the hosts to within 7-3 at the half.
Justin Tucker answered in the third quarter with a 35-yard kick of his own, but by that time, the tide had subtly started to turn; right tackle Patrick Mekari (ankle, hand) was lost for the game, and Tyre Phillips had to fill in for him. After the game, Harbaugh reported that Mekari could be out for a few weeks and that cornerback Marlon Humphrey would have an MRI on Monday and could also miss significant time with an unspecified injury. Humphrey was witnessed favoring his arm and chest muscle area after the game.
On the Pittsburgh side, Roethlisberger found the holes in the poor-tackling, coverage-busting Ravens secondary that have been there all year. Chase Claypool’s catch-and-run covered 40 yards, then Johnson got wide open on the left seam and waltzed in for a 29-yard score that brought Pittsburgh to within one point. Boswell missed the extra point, hooking it wide left.
Devin Duvernay’s 38-yard kick return and a pass-interference penalty set up Tucker’s second field goal, a 35-yard kick that seemed huge, in that a 13-9 lead required the Steelers to get a touchdown to go ahead. Johnson did haul in a 25-yard catch to set up Boswell’s 43-yard kick that shaved the Ravens’ lead to one, 13-12, with 7:18 to go.
Steeler rookie back Najee Harris’ 13-yard run put the home team in field-goal range, but a subsequent Patrick Queen interception was wiped out by an interference call on Averett, leading to Johnson’s five-yard TD catch with 1:48 left. Then, rookie tight end Pat Friermuth hauled in a two-point pass to make it 20-13 before the Ravens’ final, frantic drive and the failed two-point pass to Andrews.
With the Steelers nearly dropping below .500 with five games to go – while playing the league’s toughest schedule to boot – there was a real danger Pittsburgh could finish last in a division race for the first time since they did so in the old AFC Central in 1988. But the Steelers’ problems that led to their backs-against-the-wall predicament were not Baltimore’s concern.
For their part, the Ravens have their future to contemplate and their own story to write, one that provided the latest chapter of blue-collar resiliency, tightrope walking, and gutsy decisions, if not ultimate success. For Charm City fans, it’s a tale as old as time… and one can only hope this loss doesn’t help time run out on them.
