PITTSBURGH — A week ago, a watch party at Ravens coach John Harbaugh’s home for the Steelers’ loss to the Browns in Cleveland turned “uncorked,” the 18th-year coach said. By Sunday night, however, the mood had turned rightfully sour.
In a win-or-go-home contest against its biggest rival, Baltimore’s season fizzled out like week-old champagne, at least when it mattered most.
Trailing the Steelers 26-24 with 2 seconds remaining in a wild back-and-forth second half of back-and-forth lead changes down the stretch, rookie kicker Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal attempt wide right as time expired.
Super Bowl favorites at the start of the season, the Ravens’ championship hopes were officially extinguished at the convergence of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, where so many of their dreams had died before and did so once again in familiarly excruciating fashion.
Even when the Ravens looked like they’d find a way to win, they couldn’t.
Leading 24-20 with just over two minutes remaining after Lamar Jackson (11 of 18 passing 238 yards, three touchdowns, one interception) connected on a 64-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers for the go-ahead score, 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers (31 of 47 passing, 294 yards, one touchdown) drove the Steelers 65 yards in six plays, connecting with a wide-open Calvin Austin III on a busted coverage for the game-clinching score.
Still, Baltimore had a chance.
Steelers kicker Chris Boswell missed the extra point, and Keaton Mitchell’s kick return gave the Ravens the ball just short of midfield. Faced with a fourth-and-7 from the 50, Jackson connected with tight end Isaiah Likely, who made a spectacular leaping catch to get the Ravens within field goal range.
But like so many other opportunities, this was another missed one.
The loss to Pittsburgh in the regular season’s final week officially eliminated Baltimore from playoff contention. The Steelers are AFC North champs for the first time since 2020 and will host a wild-card playoff game against the Houston Texans next Monday night. Ravens players will disperse on Monday after Baltimore failed to reach the postseason for the first time since 2021.
The defeat was also the fifth in Baltimore’s past six trips to the Steel City. More notably, it brings an end to a year that began with so much promise and ended with a thud, with only frustration and questions that will echo across the weeks and months ahead.
Questions about Harbaugh’s future, those of his offensive and defensive coordinators Todd Monken and Zach Orr, respectively, and even the franchise quarterback who eight years ago on draft night promised to bring a Vince Lombardi trophy to Charm City. Instead, it’s wait till next year — again.
Whatever the fallout, these Ravens will almost certainly not look the same next season.
As for this 30th anniversary campaign, it will go down as an abject disaster.
It was just two years ago that the Ravens were on the precipice of the sport’s final and biggest game. Harbaugh and Jackson led the Ravens to the NFL’s best record at 13-4 and the AFC championship game at M&T Bank Stadium.
But Baltimore did what it has done too often of late when the stakes are the biggest and came up small in a 17-10 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, with questionable coaching decisions over play calling, missed scoring opportunities and three costly turnovers providing plenty of offseason fodder and fury.
Last season, the Ravens stumbled early — the sting of the previous year perhaps still lingering — but bounced back. Facing a two-game deficit in the division with four to play, they won out, including against the nemesis Steelers, to capture a second straight AFC North crown.
Yet, their postseason woes continued, losing 27-25 to the Buffalo Bills in a performance stained by three crucial turnovers, including two by Jackson, and a dropped would-be game-tying 2-point conversion pass by Mark Andrews with 93 seconds remaining.
This time, and despite expectations, the Ravens didn’t come close to even making it that far.
Five losses in their first six games — including squandering a 15-point fourth-quarter lead to the Bills in upstate New York — nearly torpedoed their chances from the start. Along the way, Jackson injured his hamstring and missed three games, two of them losses.
Like previous years, though, the Ravens climbed their way out of the hole they’d dug themselves, rattling off five straight wins to climb to the top of the division. Turn the corner?
It was all a tease.
Baltimore dropped two straight division games at home, matching a franchise high with five turnovers in a Thanksgiving night debacle against the Cincinnati Bengals at home then getting bullied by the Steelers the next week. The first shutout of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s NFL career followed, then the Ravens blew another double-digit fourth-quarter lead, this time to the New England Patriots in Baltimore.
With Jackson injured after suffering a back contusion in that defeat, the Ravens rode the long and strong legs of Derrick Henry to a victory over the Green Bay Packers last week to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. The Steelers breathed further life into them with a loss to the Browns a day later, setting up the first matchup for the division title in the season’s final week between the longtime foes.
But like the rest of the year for the Ravens, it was one step forward, two steps back. Now the party is over.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.