The Pittsburgh Steelers playoff losing streak continues the Baltimore Ravens ridiculed them 28-14 at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday night, as Mike Tomlin drops to 0-6 in the postseason since Chris Boswell booted them to their last playoff victory on a cold night in Kansas City, so long ago.
The pitch forks are out in Steelers Nation, understandably so given that the difference in the game was far more dramatic than the score suggests.
One need not dig deep to understand this latest playoff loss: The Baltimore Ravens won because they are a far more talented team who is peaking at just the right time.
Derrick Henry leaves Steelers defense in the dust. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review
Steelers Had to Be Perfect. They Were Anything But
In the run up to the game, Steel City Insider’s Jim Wexell cited the 2005 Steelers and their playoff upset of the Indianapolis Colts. That ’05 team snuck into the playoffs, knocked off a Bengals team, and then went to Indy as 10 point under dogs.
- Wexell thought the same thing could happen in Baltimore.
- A lot of other non-homers seemed to believe.
Personally, I thought the metaphor to be a stretch – that ’05 offense had 4 Hall of Famers on it (yes, I AM counting Hines Ward.) That’s at least 3 if not 4 more than this offense has. But, that being said, the ’05 did leave a template for upsetting a team with superior talent:
Be perfect.
- Three plays illustrate just how unperfect the Steelers offense was against the Ravens.
Russell Wilson took the very first snap and immediately fired off in Pat Freiermuth’s direction. Freiermuth was open, right at the first down marker. The ball hit him in the hands. Hitting the man who has been the team’s most reliable receiving threat right off the bat made sense. It would have started the offense off on the right foot.
Imperfect Moment 1: Instead, Pat Freiermuth dropped the ball.
The Steelers punted 5 plays later, and the Ravens responded with a 13 play seven minute plus drive that put them up 7 nothing. After that, the teams traded punts.
After forcing a rare Ravens put, the Steelers started off smartly, getting 8 yards on two Najee Harris’ carries. Afterall, this offense is built around using the run game to set up “manageable third downs.”
Wilson again looked to Freiermuth again.
Imperfect Moment 2: He caught the ball but only got 1 of 2 yards the Steelers needed needed.
The Ravens responded with another 13-minute, nearly 8 minute drive that put them up 14-0, with just 4:02 left the first half. And that’s when the Steelers seriously teased everyone, if only for a second.
After earning a first down, the Steelers faced a 3rd and 8. Mike Tomlin sent out Justin Fields. The Ravens were caught flat-footed and burned a timeout. Russell Wilson came back out and hit George Pickens for an apparently 49 yard moonball.
The field had been flipped, Pittsburgh was in perfect position to halve the score before the half.
Imperfect Moment 3: But Pickens pushed off, got flagged for offensive pass interference.
So it was on third and 18, Wilson managed to find Pat Freiermuth, who only managed to gain 9 yards. As you remember from school, 50% = a failing grade. And then some.
If the Steelers were to have any chance of upsetting the Ravens, they needed to be perfect. Instead they were the opposite.
Rob Mr. Henry to Pay Mr. Jackson? NOT!
Going into the game Lamar Jackson had already rushed for more yards than any other NFL quarterback. Yet previous few of those came at the expense of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The only game where he broke double-digits in rushing attempts was the 2019 game, when Mason Rudolph and Delvin Hodges almost gave him a run for his money.
- Perhaps that lulled Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin into a fall sense of security.
Because the Steelers defensive plan was to focus on stopping Derrick Henry, even if that meant allowing Jackson some daylight to run with the ball. And T.J. Watt would have been credited with maybe a half dozen tackles of Henry for losses following fake handoffs.
- That opened the door for Lamar Jackson to scramble 81 yards on 15 carries.
Credit the Ravens for executing false handoffs to perfection – they fooled both the Steelers and the Amazon Prime camera crews time and time again. With Jackson and Henry the Ravens had a one-two claw attack that the Steelers could never counter – the plan to give up a little to Jackson to shut down Henry failed miserably.
If you’re going to willingly let Jackson make some scrabbles, you have to deliver on stopping Henry.
In case you’re taking notes at home, Derrick Henry ran for 186 yards.
Real 2nd Half Rally? Or Garbage Time Glory
When the Steelers went into the locker room down 21 nothing at the half, losing a point differential of at least 35 points appeared to be in the offing.
Van Jefferson catches a 30 yard touchdown. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review
- Yet, the Steelers “only” lost by 2 touchdowns.
Did the Steelers make a game of it? Or is that just garbage time glory? It says here that they made a go of it, kinda sorta at least.
The Steelers forced a punt after the opening kickoff in the second half. That punt left the Steelers on their own two. A run to Jaylen Warren yielded 1 yard followed by an incomplete pass.
- Here Russell Wilson dug deep and hit Calvin Austin for a 29-yard completion.
- Later he hit Mike Williams on a 37-yard moonball.
- 2 plays later, on 3rd and 10 he hit Van Jefferson for a 30-yard touchdown.
3 plays later, Derrick Henry gouged the center of the Steelers defense for 44 yards, restoring Baltimore’s 21 point advantage.
But the Steelers weren’t done. Russell Wilson put together another workman like drive, and hit George Pickens for a 30-yard touchdown.
- The Steelers defense then did what it was supposed to do – it forced a Ravens 3 and out.
With just over full quarter left to play, the Steelers had a real shot at contesting this outcome – if they could only score a touchdown on this drive. The Steelers moved the chains once but, on third and 8, as it has so many times during this losing streak, the receivers couldn’t get open, the line couldn’t protect Wilson long enough, and he got sacked.
The Steelers defense actually forced another punt, but the offense turned over on downs.
Bitter Defeat Reinforces Brutal Reality
The loss to the Ravens didn’t reveal anything new about the Pittsburgh Steelers that we hadn’t seen in the last month and frankly probably should have known since the summer – this is a team with a 9 or 10 win ceiling.
But the loss did reinforce the reality that a sharp delta continues to separate the Steelers from the NFL’s true championship contenders.
