Baltimore Beatdown staff reacts to the Ravens’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 11.
The Baltimore Ravens fail to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers yet again, losing 18-16. Below are the reactions from the Beatdown staff.
The Ravens defense showed up and fought tooth-and-nail all game. They were asked to halt their season-long failures in the most significant game this season and came away with holding Russell Wilson and the Steelers’ offense to 18 points, all field goals. They allowed just four third down conversions on 16 tries and shut out the Steelers from the red zone on four separate occasions. Yet, it wasn’t enough as the No. 1 offense in the NFL sputtered to generate much of anything.
The Ravens’ offense gave the ball up twice, and a third time by way of a brilliant leaping one-handed interception as Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson snared the ball from running back Justice Hill on a wheel route.
Lamar Jackson’s woes against the Steelers continued as he finished 16-of-33 passing (48.5% completion) for 207 yards, one touchdown and an interception. Though, it wasn’t particularly Jackson’s fault for the performance as his offensive line repeatedly allowed pressure or drew flags for holding and getting downfield early.
The special teams unit faltered also. Justin Tucker missed two field goals, which would have made this a 22-18 game had he hit both. Had he hit one, it’d be 19-18. Instead, the Ravens were forced to go for 2 points as they scored with 1:11 left in the game and failed.
The Ravens have the talent, play-calling, play-making and execution, but never all at once when they face the Steelers for 60 minutes. Another victory for Pittsburgh and the Ravens are two games back of the division. — Kyle Phoenix
The Ravens embarrassed themselves on Pittsburgh on Sunday. Penalties, turnovers, and confounding offensive playcall squandered the defense’s best performance of the season. Lamar Jackson looked flat and not in command of the offense, and his teammates did little to pick him up. Justin Tucker missed two make-able kicks and is now a liability for the team until proven otherwise. The defense is the lone bright spot in this game, consistently holding the Steelers to field goals despite several short fields. This loss isn’t on John Harbaugh, but it’s his responsibility to clean up the mess. — Nikhil Mehta
What has looked like an unstoppable offense for most of the season and what was once one of the best special teams units in the league headlined by a future Hall of Famer squandered a great bounce-back performance by the defense. The Ravens held an opposing offense out of the end zone entirely for the first time all season, came up with clutch stops, recorded four sacks and got a huge red zone turnover yet their offensive counterparts failed to capitalize time and time again.
Whether it was bad drops, blown blocks or a procedural/post-snap penalty, they shot themselves in the foot more times than the Steelers stopped them. Turnovers on fumbles deep in their own territory spotted their rivals a free six points and cost themselves six points on a pair of missed field goals by Tucker on back-to-back drives in the first quarter and they wound up losing by just two points.
A 12-point swing caused by their inability to get out of their own way cost the Ravens a comfortable victory and first place in the division. Now they have to hear the narrative about how the Steelers continue to be Lamar Jackson’s kryptonite after having by far his worst game of the season that wasn’t entirely on him. Still, he was also off-target at a rate he hadn’t been all season, especially early on in this game.
The Week 16 matchup between these two teams in Baltimore will likely decide the winner of the division but until then, the Ravens will likely continue looking up at the Steelers in the standings. — Joshua Reed
Going into the game, if you told me the Ravens would keep the Steelers out of the end zone the whole game, I’d assume it would be an easy Ravens win. Unfortunately, the Ravens once again shot themselves in the foot multiple times, doing just enough to keep the game close but once again break our hearts. Justin Tucker missed two field goals and is officially a liability in the kicking game. Baltimore also handed Pittsburgh 6 points off of two fumbles in their own territory. The Steelers exercised a decent amount of their famous dark magic in this one, but it doesn’t change the fact that Lamar Jackson had a bad game, as did the rest of the offense. Just like last year’s game and many others in the Jackson/Harbaugh era, Baltimore makes too many mistakes, abandons their identity, and eventually is just out executed. The Ravens defense had their best performance in weeks and kept the team in the game. The Ravens will continue to underperform unless they can somehow marry the offense and defense together. — Stephen Bopst
This game will send fans into a tizzy. Heads will be called for, “John Harbaugh got outcoached”, “unserious franchise.” Honestly, it’s a team dropping a road game to a good divisional rival. It happens. The Ravens lost because Lamar Jackson did not play well, the penalties were too much and Justin Tucker missed field goals. That’s it. It’s simple. Jackson probably had the worst game he’ll play all season. He forced the deep ball all game and missed. I don’t expect it to be a worry going forward.
The positive note from today and what really needed to be seen was the defense showing massive improvement. The pass defense was the big story. Outside of one big Pickens play, the defense limited and broke up many deep shots and didn’t let up many explosive plays. They kept the offense in the game the entire time and let up zero touchdowns. The Ravens need to take that work and momentum and carry it over into the coming weeks. The health of Roquan Smith will be important to keep an eye on
Onto the Harbowl in Los Angeles. — Zach Canter