BALTIMORE — For a team in a must-win situation in the season finale to qualify for the postseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like they wanted no part of the Baltimore Ravens.

Or the playoffs.

Not that the Steelers got the outside help they needed anyway.

The first five AFC seeds were set by kickoff. The Ravens already clinched the first seed and home-field advantage. The Kansas City Chiefs won to clinch the No. 2 seed after New England lost to Miami, making the Patriots the third seed, the Houston Texans fourth and the Buffalo Bills fifth.

At kickoff, the Steelers simply needed a win and a Tennessee Titans loss to clinch the sixth seed and a wild-card date next weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

Perhaps that was enough to kill the Steelers’ incentive.

The dreary weather, overcast skies and a drizzle that became a downpour, was an ominous sign.

The opening drive was even worse.

Despite Baltimore sitting seven starters, including five Pro Bowl picks and the odds-on favorite to win the MVP, the Ravens quickly proved they didn’t even need quarterback Lamar Jackson, running back Mark Ingram, tight end Mark Andrews or right guard Marshal Yanda to control the game on offense for a 28-10 victory Sunday afternoon.

1. No defense: The Ravens covered 101 yards on 20 plays in their first two drives, starting with an opening drive that spanned 7 minutes, 4 seconds.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh promised to use Trace McSorley, and the rookie quarterback from Penn State made his NFL debut on the third play of the game.

On a third-and-1, McSorley lined up wide left and motioned to the middle. He took a shotgun snap and ran an option keeper for the first down.

The Ravens ran nine times before Robert Griffin III finally attempted a pass — he was sacked by Mike Hilton and T.J. Watt — and they had to settle for a Justin Tucker 45-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead at 7:56 of the first quarter.

The Steelers promptly went three-and-out.

Baltimore went 61 yards on its next drive as Griffin connected with tight end Hayden Hurst for 15 yards, and Gus Edwards broke loose for 38 yards to set up a Tucker 22-yard field goal for a 6-0 lead at 2:40.

The Ravens were beating the Steelers with backups.

2. Rookie reaction: In fairness to the Steelers, their top skill playmakers are rookies.

After Devlin Hodges threw incomplete twice on the first possession, the Steelers turned to Benny Snell and Diontae Johnson.

Johnson caught a pair of third-down passes, 11 yards on a third-and-2 and a 21-yarder on the left sideline on third-and-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Snell followed with runs of 7 and 2 yards, then broke a 19-yarder on third-and-1 and followed with a 4-yard touchdown run to give the Steelers a 7-6 lead.

The advantage didn’t last long.

It was clear the Steelers were trying to entice the Ravens to pull Griffin to protect him from injury, given outside linebackers Watt and Bud Dupree hit the backup quarterback on every play, run or pass.

That backfired late in the second quarter when Watt batted down a Griffin pass but shoved him into an offensive lineman. Watt drew a roughing-the-passer penalty that gave the Ravens a first down at the Steelers 45.

Griffin found Hurst on a third-and-12 for a 20-yard gain that set up yet another Tucker field goal, this one a 42-yarder for a 9-7 lead with 1:10 left in the first half.

And it was about to get worse.

3. Duck-Duck-Goose: One play after Hodges handled a low snap from backup center B.J. Finney, he was sacked by Ravens outside linebacker Matthew Judon and fumbled.

Steelers running back Jaylen Samuels spun around to dive for the loose ball, but it eluded his grasp and defensive tackle Michael Pierce recovered at the Steelers 23 with 45 seconds left in the half.

That was all the time the Ravens needed to score their first touchdown as Justice Hill followed a 10-yard catch on third-and-5 at the 18 with an 8-yard scoring run to give Baltimore a 16-7 halftime lead.

The Ravens turned a turnover into a touchdown.

The Steelers needed their defense to do the same.

4. Slip and slide: That break came early in the third quarter, when Watt forced a fumble by Gus Edwards, and cornerback Joe Haden recovered at the Baltimore 34.

Snell broke a 15-yard run on first down to put the Steelers in the red zone, and a Marlon Humphrey holding penalty two plays later gave them first-and-goal at the 8.

Snell gained 2 yards on first down but slipped and fell on second down for a 2-yard loss. To make matters worse, Finney was bowled over by Ravens defenders and landed on top of Snell.

On third down, the Steelers got JuJu Smith-Schuster in single coverage on the outside, but Hodges overthrew a corner fade in the end zone. Chris Boswell kicked a 26-yard field goal to cut it to 16-10 at 9:55 of the third.

The Steelers needed a touchdown to win and for the Titans to lose. Mostly, they needed the Titans to lose. And the Titans had a 28-14 fourth-quarter lead over the Texans.

So, the Steelers needed a miracle.

Instead, the Ravens got a 47-yard Tucker field goal for a 19-10 lead with 13:29 remaining.

It was fitting the soaked citizens of Baltimore celebrated inside M&T Bank Stadium by serenading the Steelers with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

5. Goodnight: This game was symbolic of the Steelers’ season, which many believed became a lost cause once Ben Roethlisberger had season-ending elbow surgery.

The Steelers lost Stephon Tuitt to a torn pectoral and dealt with nagging injuries to 2018 Pro Bowl performers in running back James Conner, Smith-Schuster and center Maurkice Pouncey. They even lost backup quarterback Mason Rudolph to a concussion in the first Baltimore game and to a season-ending shoulder injury before the rematch.

No wonder the offense struggled to gain yards, let alone score points. But the defense couldn’t stop the run, even against Baltimore’s backups. The Ravens got a career-best 124-yard game from Edwards and ran for 200-plus yards on a soggy field. That the Steelers allowed opening scoring drives against the New York Jets and Ravens when they were being counted upon to carry the team proved costly.

The final insults came in the fourth quarter, the first two involving punts. The Ravens, with a fourth-and-1 at their own 11, ran a fake punt by snapping the ball to up-back Anthony Levine for a 2-yard gain. The Steelers, with a fourth-and-10 from their 19, saw Jordan Berry bobble the snap and attempt to run, only to fumble when hit by Patrick Onwuasor and for Jordan Richards recover for a touchdown and a 26-10 lead with 4:41 remaining.

The Ravens weren’t done rubbing it in as Hodges was forced to throw the ball away under pressure in the end zone. He was called for intentional grounding and a safety to make it 28-10 only 20 seconds later.

After winning seven of eight games, the Steelers entered the final three weeks of the season with a chance to overcome all of the injuries and qualify for the postseason. Problem is, they never beat a playoff team. And they couldn’t compete with the NFL’s best team, even one that relied on so many backups.

Truth is, the Steelers weren’t a playoff team.

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