MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
The Baltimore Ravens so have the Pittsburgh Steelers in their head (not to mention the Kansas City Chiefs). Why else would a group of veterans who have rarely beaten the Steelers as Ravens themselves tell first-year Ravens players, “You’re not a Raven until you beat the Steelers?”
When it was Lewis, Reed, Suggs, Flacco et al telling the young guys that, okay. It was legitimate and earned bravado because in those days the Ravens and the Steelers took turns beating each other.
That doesn’t happen anymore. The Steelers’ 18-16 win over the Ravens on Sunday was their eighth in the last nine meetings between the teams, so when you hear Ravens players say that these days, it sounds as though it’s being said with a touch of anxiety.
Humility would certainly be more appropriate.
All we hear is the Ravens are this, the Ravens are that, but apparently they’re not the Ravens because they don’t beat the Steelers anymore. They can’t beat the Steelers anymore, because they won’t allow themselves to, and that was front and center again on Sunday in a game when the Ravens defense turned in its very best performance, fighting off poor field position created by the offense to not allow Pittsburgh a touchdown.
The Ravens are their own worst enemy. No team beats the Ravens more than the Ravens do.
“Absolutely,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said after the game. “It’s been that way ever since last year, I believe. Going back to the AFC Championship Game we killed ourselves.
“Chiefs game in the opener, we killed ourselves.
“Raiders game, we killed ourselves.
“Today, the same thing. We can’t keep beating ourselves in these types of games. (Stuff) is annoying.”
It’s annoying that the Steelers have the Ravens’ number, particularly in a typical fistfight game between the two rivals such as Sunday’s.
The defense did its best to win the game for the Ravens, and so did Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson, who was awful, as the Steelers averaged 4.2 yards per play, converted 25% on third down, took sacks, ran terrible routes and turned the ball over in the red zone unforced. Yet still won.
Yet on the other side of the field, the Ravens were even worse, as Justin Tucker missed two field goals within 50 yards (and this is far past the becoming a problem stage), Diontae Johnson dropped a touchdown pass, a Justice Hill drop led to a strip-interception and a Steelers field goal, and Derrick Henry and Isaiah Likely fumbled deep in their own territory to give the Steelers two more field goals.
Oh, and Henry, the leading rusher in the NFL, had 0 fourth-quarter touches. That’s not on John Harbaugh; he doesn’t call the plays, never has. That’s not on Lamar Jackson, either. All three of his interceptions this year have first gone off and come through his own receivers’ hands. And all three of them have come in Ravens losses.
The Steelers have the Ravens’ number, winning eight of the last nine. The Ravens were out-coached, out-played and out-disciplined. A team just can’t win with penalties, turnovers, missed field goals and confusion on the final 2-point conversion, on which Henry was not even on the field. Not that it would have even mattered since amidst all of the confusion, every block on the field appeared to be missed by the Ravens.
“Well, it didn’t work,” Harbaugh said of the play. “Anytime you get a play that didn’t work you look at it very critically.
“We’re disappointed in that play. You want to have a better play up there, a better play call, a better executed play … especially when it’s an opportunity to tie a game at the end after a hard-fought game.
“You have to look at those plays really hard. That’s one we’d really like to have back across the board.”
Which is the same thing he said about the failed fourth-and-one call in Cleveland that was run out of the wildcat and helped lead to the loss against the 2-8 Browns.
It was offered here last week that the Ravens were not going to outscore the Steelers, because, heck, they couldn’t outscore the Browns or the Raiders.
The sad part about Sunday was the Ravens didn’t have to outscore the Steelers. They just had to score. Is that asking too much from the top offense in the NFL?
Oh, the Steelers are so in the Ravens’ heads. Right there with the Chiefs.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT