Steelers

Feats of Strength: Timely turnovers, perfect kicking, George Pickens’ prowess lead Steelers over Ravens

Tim Benz
Tim Benz
Slide 1
The Steelers’ Nick Herbig drops Ravens running back Derrick Henry in the third quarter Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, at Acrisure Stadium.

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Ten weeks of anticipation for the Pittsburgh Steelers were well worth the wait.

That’s how deep we have gotten into the NFL season before seeing the Steelers play an AFC North foe. That’s what they did in Week 11, though, Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, hosting the Baltimore Ravens with the division lead on the line.

For the fourth time in a row and the eighth time in nine tries, the Steelers ended up dismissing their sworn divisional rivals, this time by a score of 18-16.

In many ways, it was a unique game. In many other ways, it was as beautifully typical of Steelers vs. Ravens as we have ever witnessed.

You’ll see exactly why in this week’s “Feats of Strength” and “Airing of Grievances.”

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Backers come up big: If you want to know why the Steelers won the game, look no further than the linebacker play. That unit forced three turnovers.

Back from a hamstring injury suffered during the Oct. 6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Nick Herbig stripped the ball away from Derrick Henry on the second offensive play of the game. DeShon Elliott recovered it, and the Steelers turned that possession into a field goal to post an early 3-0 lead.

“That’s the culture. That’s what we instilled from Day 1. We are ball-searching. That’s what we are looking for. We work it every day,” Herbig said after the win.

On the last offensive drive of the first half, Ravens coach John Harbaugh handed the Steelers a gift. Starting at the 9-yard line with 38 seconds remaining, Baltimore decided to launch a drive. Instead of just giving the ball to Henry, Baltimore opened up throwing. Former Raven Patrick Queen—who totaled 10 tackles on the day—forced Isaiah Likely to fumble on the first snap of that series.

The Steelers kicked a short field goal to take a 9-7 lead into the locker room.

In the fourth quarter, inside linebacker Payton Wilson made perhaps the play of the game. The rookie from N.C. State caught up to running back Justice Hill on a wheel route and stole the ball from him when it looked like a sure reception.

Instead, as the players were tumbling to the grass, Wilson ripped the ball away for an interception.

Meanwhile, the linebacker room’s biggest star, T.J. Watt, had three tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits of Lamar Jackson.

Stop the pop: The most pivotal snap of the game was the Ravens’ 2-point conversion attempt while trailing 18-16 with just over a minute left to play.

The Steelers called timeout at the last moment before Baltimore snapped the ball. Coming out of the timeout, Jackson took the snap and rolled left. Porter came screaming up from the right cornerback position and forced the quarterback to throw the ball away in desperation.

“They usually do that (Tim) Tebow pop pass: run up to the line of scrimmage and pop it to somebody that sneaks out of there,” Porter said. “We thought that was going to be the case, so we called that timeout. He was kind of looking for it on that 2-point play. But I just hurried up, saw what he was trying to do and made the play.”

Again, credit Herbig. He knifed through the offensive front and forced Jackson toward Porter immediately after the snap.

Kick-6: Placekicker Chris Boswell was the offensive star. He drilled all six of his field-goal attempts, accounting for all of Pittsburgh’s scoring.

Three of Boswell’s field goals were from beyond 50 yards. He has made nine 50-yarders in 10 tries during this season. The other three field goals made up for some red-zone failures that the offense endured.

The difference in field-goal kicking was also evident in the sense that, while Boswell was a perfect 6 for 6, the formerly unflappable Justin Tucker missed two first-half field goals for the Ravens. He has now missed six kicks on the season. He missed only five all of last year.

Just George: Among the wide receivers, George Pickens was pretty much the only receiving option, and he rose to the occasion. The third-year pass catcher from Georgia led the team in catches (8), targets (12) and yards (89).

The most important catch of the afternoon was Pickens’ field-flipping 37-yard grab late in the third quarter.

That connection led to Boswell’s fifth field goal and gave the Steelers a lead of 15-10.

The other wide receivers were pretty much silent. Ben Skowronek had one catch. Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller and Mike Williams were shut out. Calvin Austin had one for minus-1 yard

If the Steelers bothered to trade for Williams, they should be using him more.

I’d argue the same thing for the Ravens and how little they are utilizing Dionate Johnson, by the way. His return to Acrisure Stadium resulted in no catches on two targets.

More of the same: With the Steelers’ defense having some shaky moments over the past six weeks and the Ravens’ offense at, or near, the top of the charts in many categories, a lot of pundits were expecting more points than usual in a typical Steelers-Ravens game.

Nope.

It was your run-of-the-mill, AFC North, Baltimore-Pittsburgh defensive rock fight, with the Steelers’ defense continuing to baffle Jackson and the Ravens in ways most teams can’t.

Jackson was held to 207 yards passing and 46 yards rushing. Henry had only 65 yards on the ground. Receiver Zay Flowers had only two catches for 39 yards. The teams combined for only eight third-down conversions in 27 tries. Just two touchdowns were scored over 60 minutes.

“I looked around, and people were, like, ‘It’s going to be, like, 44-42,’ ” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “And I was, like, ‘Ugh! We don’t welcome that.’ It’s just the way this rivalry works.

Baltimore entered the game leading the NFL in points per game at 31.8. With Wilson at quarterback, the Steelers were averaging 30.3 points a game in his first three starts.

AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

First-half offense: The Steelers’ offense in the first half was putrid. Arthur Smith’s unit went into halftime with a measly 93 yards on 35 plays for an average of 2.7 yards per snap.

Russell Wilson looked like the 2022 Denver version of himself. He was only 12 of 20 for 76 yards. That’s just 3.8 yards per attempt.

Wilson also was sacked four times. He would’ve had another, but the play was blown dead for a replay with under two minutes left.

The Steelers were particularly bad on third downs, managing only one first down on nine attempts over the first 30 minutes. They also failed on a fourth-down conversion.

Lethargic line: Throughout a lot of juggling and injuries, the Steelers offensive line has — for the most part — held up well.

That wasn’t the case at the start of the game Sunday. In the first half alone, Wilson was sacked four times. He had to throw the ball away under pressure three more times and did so again once more in the second half.

The Ravens also dominated up front defensively in the run game. Pittsburgh managed only 41 yards on 11 attempts (3.7-yard average) during the first two quarters.

Things got better in the second half. Wilson wasn’t sacked, and the Steelers nearly doubled their rushing yardage total after halftime, reaching 81 yards. But it was still very much a grind up front.

Broderick Jones took a step back after making significant progress last week in Washington. He was beaten for a sack, had an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and two holding calls.

Zero in the red zone: The Steelers were rotten in the red zone, coming up empty on four trips. The most egregious mistake occurred when Wilson threw an interception over the head of tight end Darnell Washington on a third-down pass that was picked off by Marlon Humphrey in the end zone.

A field goal there would’ve put the Steelers up 18-10. Instead, the Ravens got the ball back down by five with a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter.

The defense also forced those two first-half turnovers deep in Baltimore territory. Herbig’s strip of Henry occurred on the Baltimore 35. The Steelers pushed the possession to the 14-yard line and had to settle for a field goal. Meanwhile, Queen’s fumble recovery occurred on the Ravens’ 19-yard line

Boswell also needed to finish a third-quarter drive that broke down at the 9-yard line after the 37-yard bomb from Wilson to Pickens.

Then there was the offense’s performance on third downs. That wasn’t just a first-half issue. Wilson and company ended up 4 of 16 for the afternoon.

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