PITTSBURGH — The Baltimore Ravens love to talk about their mental toughness. They always have. Yet, something happens every time this current nucleus of Ravens sees the black and gold of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the other side of the field.
They commit penalties. They turn the ball over. They lose their composure. They find ways to lose a game they could easily have won had they not spent 60 minutes hurting themselves.
“It’s clear that we really struggle against them,” said cornerback Marlon Humphrey. “They’ve had our number.”
Despite all of their folly Sunday at Acrisure Stadium — and there was plenty of it, from three turnovers to two Justin Tucker missed field goals to 12 penalties — the Ravens were 2 yards from tying the game in the final 66 seconds.
However, that required a well-called and well-executed two-point try. Offensive coordinator Todd Monken opted for a Lamar Jackson quarterback run while Derrick Henry, one of the best power backs of his generation, remained on the sideline in favor of Justice Hill. The play looked doomed from the start.
STEELERS DENY THE GAME-TYING 2-PT CONVERSION.
📺: #BALvsPIT on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/Vzrz2wUyIu— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
Tight end Isaiah Likely and wide receiver Nelson Agholor were frantically motioning to each other about where to line up. The offensive line didn’t get off the ball quickly, and the pullers were unable to pave Jackson’s way to the left because of Pittsburgh’s penetration. When Jackson realized he wasn’t getting in with his legs, he tossed the ball desperately in the air — to nobody in particular.
“I don’t think it would’ve been well deserved even if we got (the two-point try) because of all of the things we need to fix on our side,” said left tackle Ronnie Stanley. “We didn’t do a good enough job on that play, but I don’t think we needed to be in that position in the first place. We just got to take a look at ourselves, not point fingers and get back to what we need to do to play Baltimore Ravens football.”
When running back Najee Harris picked up the necessary 1 yard for the first down on the ensuing possession, the Steelers’ 18-16 victory over the Ravens was assured and their grip on first place in the AFC North was strengthened. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin pounded his chest on the sideline.
The Steelers (8-2) had done it to the Ravens (7-4) again — for the eighth time in the past nine meetings to be exact. This one was unique because the Steelers, for the first time in the history of the rivalry, won a game without scoring a touchdown. Chris Boswell made six field goals, three of them from 50-plus yards.
The Ravens, however, did enough of the harm to themselves.
“It’s been that way ever since last year, I believe, going back to the AFC Championship Game, we killed ourselves,” said Jackson, who is now 1-4 as a starter against the Steelers. “The Chiefs game in the opener, we killed ourselves. Raiders (loss), we killed ourselves, and today, it’s the same thing. We can’t be beating ourselves in these types of games. We have to find a way to fix that. It’s annoying.”
The Steelers deserve credit, too. They again shut down Jackson and dominated the game with their defense. The Ravens, who came into the game with the league’s top-ranked offense and the presumptive midseason MVP at quarterback, didn’t get a touchdown pass until there was 1:06 to play when Jackson hit Zay Flowers for a 16-yard score.
They again allowed the Ravens to make all of the crushing mistakes. Henry and Likely both fumbled the ball in Ravens territory, leading to points, and Hill allowed linebacker Payton Wilson to pull the ball out of his hands, turning a potential completion into an interception.
“They’re a top-10 defense, but I think a lot of it was on us — self-inflicted wounds,” said Henry, who scored a touchdown for the 11th straight game to give Baltimore a late second-quarter lead. “My fumble was unacceptable. It cannot happen. And it’s just us with penalties, we’re putting ourselves in backed-up situations. A lot of self-inflicted wounds that we need to clean up as a whole.”
PAYTON WILSON RIPS IT AWAY. WILD @STEELERS INT.
📺: #BALvsPIT on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/lisvTk1lt7— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
And the Steelers again were the team that mostly executed in scoring situations beyond Wilson’s ill-advised interception to Humphrey. Boswell was 6-for-6 on field goal attempts. Tucker was 1-for-3, missing from 47 and 50 before making one from 54. For many years, the Ravens had the kicking edge in this rivalry, but that has changed. Tucker has now missed six kicks and an extra-point try on the season. In his previous 12 years, he missed six kicks in a season just twice.
“You’re going to have ups, you’re going to have downs, and trying to chase as many ups as possible is what we’re all after,” said Tucker, who has missed all of his kicks wide left. “Ultimately, none of us are happy if we don’t win it all in the end; only one team gets to do that. But part of the challenge that every player, every coach, every team faces is remaining confident, and the way that I know we remain confident — (and) I’m still confident I’m going to go out there and nail every single kick. I might sound like a broken record, but it’s a part of what brings us success … is just trusting the process and then taking it one kick at a time.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh has expressed confidence in Tucker throughout his struggles this season, but he said following Sunday’s loss that “Tuck needs to make kicks. He knows that. Kick them straight, we’ll be good.”
The reality is this: Harbaugh has myriad problems to confront that are at least on par with Tucker’s struggles. The biggest one is the team’s inability to avoid getting frequently penalized. The Ravens entered the game ranked last in the NFL in penalties (80) and penalty yards (683). They then added 12 penalties for 80 yards to their total, nearly doubling the Steelers up in penalty yards. Think that matters in a game decided by two points?
“The biggest thing was we just got in the second-and-long too much, and then it ends up being third-and-long too often,” Harbaugh said. “Penalties set us back too much.”
The Ravens actually played one of their better defensive games of the season. They sacked Russell Wilson four times, held the Steelers to a 4-for-17 effort on third and fourth downs and 0-for-4 in the red zone.
The decision to bench starting safety Marcus Williams and go with Ar’Darius Washington, while also mixing in trade acquisition Tre’Davious White (23 snaps) at outside cornerback, paid dividends. However, the Ravens now have new defensive concerns with middle linebacker and team leader Roquan Smith missing a chunk of the second half with a hamstring injury.
Harbaugh didn’t update Smith’s status, nor did he have anything to say about why reserve safety Eddie Jackson didn’t make the trip to Pittsburgh despite having no known injury or illness. With reserve safety Sanoussi Kane also sustaining an ankle injury that had him in a walking boot and using crutches to get to the team bus, the Ravens may be forced to add some defensive reinforcements this week in time for next Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Then, there’s the Steelers problem. The Ravens spent all week talking about how they just need to play better football against their chief rivals, who have won four in a row in the series. They then went out and played arguably their worst and sloppiest game of the season.
“We know we didn’t play our game,” Stanley said. “Everyone knows mistakes are made. I’m sure there’s a lot of people on our team, if not everyone on our team, that want one, two, three, four plays back. But that’s what it is to be professional. We got to come in and make the least mistakes, and we made way more mistakes than they did.”
Jackson, in particular, will only hear more talk about how the Steelers are his kryptonite. On Sunday, he completed just 16 of 33 passes for 207 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The one pick wasn’t his fault, but Jackson sailed a number of throws high or had them blocked at the line of scrimmage.
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His 66.1 quarterback rating was his lowest of the season and interrupted a stretch where he posted a rating of 101 or higher in eight straight games.
Of course, he wasn’t alone in his struggles. The problem is that’s almost always the case when the Ravens play the Steelers.
“I can’t call it,” Jackson said when asked about the team’s struggles versus the Steelers. “I feel like we were taking strides in the right direction, and then something would happen.”
(Photo: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)
