BALTIMORE — They talked about it in meetings and practice all week, not shying away from their recent history against their biggest rivals and vowing that things would be different this time.
As running back Derrick Henry said later, the message all week was to finish. Center Tyler Linderbaum said it extended even further to “don’t flinch,” something the Baltimore Ravens had done far too often in losing eight of their previous nine games to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Ravens knew there would be a moment Saturday evening where things would get tense, where the game hung in the balance and where they would get an opportunity to right some of their wrongs in this matchup. It’s inevitable when two teams get together that know nothing but one-score games.
That moment arrived with just under 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter. With the Ravens poised to extend their one-touchdown lead with the ball deep in Pittsburgh territory, quarterback Lamar Jackson had a miscommunication with wide receiver Rashod Bateman that resulted in an interception. The anxiety at frigid M&T Bank Stadium was suddenly palpable. The paying customers had seen this movie multiple times before.
“That interception really got me mad,” Jackson said later about the lone blemish on a three-touchdown passing performance. “We don’t turn the ball over (in) almost any game, we win the game. That one turnover could have been the difference.”
Yet, it wasn’t. It was fitting that it was Baltimore’s veteran cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who has played in so many of these Ravens-Steelers games and acknowledged during the week how much it bothered him to be on the losing end so often in recent years, who stepped up to rewrite the ending.
Two plays after Jackson’s interception, Humphrey stepped in front of tight end MyCole Pruitt and intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass, returning it down the Ravens’ sideline for a 37-yard touchdown. His first career pick six set off a celebration that carried through Baltimore’s 34-17 victory over Pittsburgh, a result that clinched a playoff spot for the Ravens, pulled them into a first-place tie with the Steelers in the AFC North and stopped a frustrating streak of losses to a division foe.
MARLON HUMPHREY PICK-6 😈
📺: #PITvsBAL on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/RRFJ8ehfrP— NFL (@NFL) December 21, 2024
“It was massive,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, whose team qualified for the postseason for the 12th time in his 17 seasons. “Just the things that we had talked about, the things that the guys were talking about — the idea that it’s just good. Something happens, a good circumstance, good. A tough circumstance, good. It gives us an opportunity to come back and make the next play and take the next opportunity to turn things around. For Marlon to do that, it just means so much.”
Humphrey, very much a free spirit, was emotional and introspective after the game. His wife just gave birth to their son, Duke, and Humphrey spent part of the week at the hospital. Even as he prepared for Saturday’s game, he was making arrangements to potentially pick his wife and Duke up at the hospital when they were discharged. Humphrey’s son got a game ball after the win.
“Man, it’s huge,” said Humphrey, who now has six interceptions, a key forced fumble and a defensive touchdown on his All-Pro resume this season. “I think they’ve definitely gotten the best of us over the years, and I feel like we haven’t played good football, let alone — and not even close to — great football. Not that we played the greatest today, but I felt that we did not do the things we usually do that kind of beat ourselves. To clinch against the Steelers, there’s not a better feeling.”
And to do it with a dominant fourth quarter was massive for a Ravens team that had been outscored 78-35 in the final quarter by the Steelers over its last eight losses in the series. The Ravens took a 24-17 lead into the fourth quarter after Jackson hit tight end Mark Andrews for a 7-yard touchdown with 1:50 to play in the third. They then outscored the Steelers 10-0 over the final 15 minutes to get a rare multi-score win in the series.
Defensively, the Ravens faced four Steelers drives in the fourth quarter. They got a fourth-down stop on the first one, Humphrey’s pick six on the second one and then forced punts on the third and fourth possessions. Of course, it was Humphrey’s interception that loomed largest.
“Right before we went out, we were talking about, ‘Let’s get the ball back on defense.’ That was kind of the conversation we were having on the field,” Humphrey said. “To be able to get the ball back and really die out that momentum, it was a good time for somebody to make a play.”
After the return score, the defense forced a punt and then Jackson led an 11-play, 86-yard drive that ended with a Justin Tucker 23-yard field goal, which made it a three-possession game. The key play on the drive was Jackson’s 49-yard connection to Zay Flowers on third-and-5, putting Flowers over the 1,000-yard mark on the season.
“We’ve been working for this all season,” Flowers said. “We’ve had ups and downs, so it feels good to clinch it, and especially versus a team that’s been our rival.”
Lamar and Zay connect on a big 49-yard completion #RavensFlock
📺: #PITvsBAL on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/f3JOKoqbYZ— NFL (@NFL) December 22, 2024
The Ravens improved to 10-5 and pulled even with the Steelers with two games to play. If both teams win out — the Ravens face the host Houston Texans while the Steelers are home against the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day — Pittsburgh would take the division.
With the teams splitting the head-to-head matchup and having the same division record under that scenario, the Steelers would win the North based on the third tiebreaker criteria, which is winning percentage against common opponents. A 2-0 finish would leave the Steelers 9-3 against common opponents, and the Ravens 8-4.
Still, to remain in the mix to win the division and host a first-round playoff game, the Ravens had to win Saturday. The result now means the division will not be settled until the final week of the regular season.
How the Ravens won could serve as a blueprint for the team. Jackson was good until the fourth-quarter interception, which may have been more on Bateman than the quarterback. However, it was Henry who set the tone.
He had 162 of his team’s 220 rushing yards on 24 carries and also caught two passes for 27 yards. Henry touched the ball on eight of Baltimore’s first 13 plays. By halftime, Baltimore had 19 carries, the same number it had in its entire Week 11 loss at Pittsburgh. The Ravens finished the game with 38 rushing attempts. Their 34 points were the most a team has scored in the matchup since Pittsburgh’s 39-38 win in 2017.
“The emphasis all week was just finish,” Henry said. “We know that if we didn’t turn the ball over or have any self-inflicted wounds, we’d give ourselves a chance to win the game, and I think we did that a lot last game. All the guys were locked in, focused in on the emphasis from this week, to be able to go out there and finish and play the way that we did.”
Jackson and a number of the Ravens’ offensive players were quick to deflect credit to the defense, which made arguably the two biggest plays of the day. Humphrey’s interception triggered the final momentum swing in a game full of them.
However, in the second quarter, the Steelers were poised to take a touchdown lead and score on a second consecutive possession when safety Ar’Darius Washington leveled Wilson at the 4-yard line as the quarterback was attempting to turn a long scramble into a touchdown. Wilson fumbled the ball and Kyle Van Noy recovered it. The Ravens took over deep in their own territory, but Jackson led an eight-play, 96-yard drive that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Bateman.
“I knew that was going to be a momentum shift, for sure,” Washington said.
(Photo of Marlon Humphrey and Ar’Darius Washington: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
