By admin 
PITTSBURGH – The Ravens’ 18-16 loss Sunday didn’t come down to one game, even though all the Ravens’ losses to the Steelers these days seem to come down to one game. But there was a cruel irony in the way Pittsburgh broke the Ravens’ spirits for the final time at Acrisure Stadium.
For more than 59 minutes on Sunday, the Ravens’ defense had not been the problem. It had been the backstop, the stabilizing force, the momentum swinger. 4.3 yards per play were allowed until the Steleers lined up for the game’s decisive point, and that was usually enough to win. But after running back Najee Harris converted a third-and-1 with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter, leaving the Ravens out of time and timeouts, it was the defense that was left to take the pain on the field from to catch another rivalry game. stinker.
“I was excited about that,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said after perhaps the worst game of the entire season. “Our defense played great today. They held a great team, great offense, to 18 points, and we just scored 16 points. We had all these items on the agenda throughout the year. It’s annoying.”
Eleven weeks into a season with championship aspirations, the Ravens (7-4) remain almost allergic to complete games. They rewarded their stellar defensive effort Sunday — 3.6 yards per carry allowed, a season-best 5.7 yards per pass attempt allowed, four sacks, two takeaways — with a shrug on offense and a kick in the teeth on special teams.
The mediocrity of both units alone would have given the Ravens control of the AFC North, avoided a four-game losing streak against their foes, and dulled the pain of seven losses in eight meetings. Instead, the Ravens watched the Steelers (8-2) win without scoring a touchdown, a first in the history of the storied, spirited and recently one-sided rivalry.
“I think it’s clear that we’ve really been battling them the last few years,” said cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who was so eager to wash away the stench of the Ravens’ loss that he went after Harris’ conversion but before the conversion. locker room went. the game was over, unaware that coach John Harbaugh had called the team’s final timeout.
“I’ve been on at least two or three of those eight or nine or whatever game winners in front of me. They more or less had our number. You get to see them twice. You just keep fighting. You know they’re going to be a well-coached team with (Steelers coach Mike) Tomlin there. It’s always a battle, so they’ve had our number, but we just keep fighting.”
The Ravens offense wasn’t the albatross. Pittsburgh entered Sunday with the NFL’s No. 2 scoring defense (16.2 points per game) and No. 10 defense overall, according to FTN’s opponent-adjusted efficiency metricsbut the Ravens had held their own against some of the league’s toughest units, and even dominated a few.
The challenge for Harbaugh was matching offensive excellence with acceptable defense. In nine of the Ravens’ first ten games, they finished with positive expected points on offense, indicating that they had outperformed expectations against their field position, deficit and distance. Only their Week 2 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders ended in the red, according to TruMedia.
But the Ravens’ partner for a historically good offense had been a dysfunctional defense. As their attack fled, their collaborators mostly crashed and burned. The team finished with a positive defensive EPA in only three of its first ten games. (Another cruel irony was that one of those games was the loss to Las Vegas.)
Sunday’s defeat marked a stunning reversal. The Ravens’ offense finished with a season-low 329 yards, a season-low tying 6.1 yards per play, a season-worst three turnovers and a season-worst minus-9.40 EPA. The Ravens defense finished with 303 yards allowed (the fewest since Week 5), a season-best 4.1 yards per play allowed and a season-best 17.7 EPA — nearly a touchdown better than in the team’s demolition of the Buffalo Bills in week 4.
Ravens cornerback Brandon Stephens tackles Najee Harris in the first quarter. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
“There’s too many things where we start behind the 8-ball and don’t do the right things, and that’s happened week after week,” tight end Mark Andrews said of the Ravens’ offensive struggles. “We keep fighting and we keep moving the ball and putting ourselves in good positions and putting ourselves in the right place at the end of the game to tie the game, but it didn’t go that way. We are going to learn from that.”
The Ravens offense could have forced Pittsburgh into a do-or-die drive late. Jackson, who finished 16-for-33 (48.5%) for 207 yards, a touchdown and an unfortunate interception, hit six straight passes to lead the Ravens on a nine-play, 69-yard touchdown drive that culminated in a 16-yard touchdown drive. pass to wide receiver Zay Flowers with just over a minute remaining.
But the pressure on Jackson on every other putback found him on the Ravens’ subsequent two-point conversion. On a designed quarterback sweep to the left, outside linebacker Nick Herbig easily beat a block attempt by wide receiver Nelson Agholor, not only blocking Jackson’s path but also drawing center Tyler Linderbaum and left guard Patrick Mekari to the middle. Jackson derailed well beyond the line of scrimmage and hopelessly threw a pass to no one in particular.
Justin Tucker watched from the sideline and couldn’t give the Ravens the lead or tie the game. He had missed from 47 yards midway through the first quarter, and from 50 yards less than four minutes later. He had done some atonement for a 54-yard field goal in the third quarter that cut the Steelers’ lead to 12-10, but by then the game’s best kicker was known to all. Chris Boswell of the Steelers would finish 6-for-6 and score three field goals from at least 50 yards.
That wasn’t the difference, just like penalties (12 for 80 yards) weren’t the difference, just like fumbles by running back Derrick Henry (13 carries for 65 yards) and tight end Isaiah probably weren’t the difference. But it was still a disadvantage, one the Ravens couldn’t afford. They finished the loss with minus-10.29 EPA on special teams, one of their worst single-game performances under Harbaugh. Tucker’s two misses accounted for more than half of the damage, and Boswell’s attacks didn’t help either.
“Tuck has to make kicks,” said Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator. ‘He knows that; that’s important. He makes them in practice, and the long ones he made later, which was good to see, meaning he’s still very capable. Kick them straight and we’ll be fine.”
“It’s definitely frustrating, especially when we know these games are on the line, like this one today,” said Tucker, who was 16-for-22 on field goal attempts this season. “But as I’ve said before, all we can do is just get back to work and focus on making the most of our next opportunity.”
The Ravens now have to wait five weeks for their next appearance at the Steelers. They’ll need more from their offense, more from their special teams and more of the same from their defense. That’s what remains most elusive this season: a team on the same page. Only then can they write the next chapter in this rivalry. Only then can they start dreaming about winning something bigger.