When it comes to facing Ravens backups, Steelers used to expecting the unexpected

It doesn’t matter to Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin that his team is preparing to face backup quarterback Tyler Huntley instead of starter Lamar Jackson.

Just like it meant little when the Steelers had to face Robert Griffin III, Ryan Mallett or Troy Smith over the years.

The Steelers have familiarity with the Ravens starting a backup quarterback, particularly once the calendar flips to December. When the teams meet Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, it will mark the sixth time in Tomlin’s 16 seasons the Ravens won’t have their starter on the field in a late-season matchup.

And despite the Steelers escaping with a victory in the season finale last season when Huntley got the call, or improving to 11-0 in 2020 by beating RGIII, they have been on the other side of the equation, too, in the stretch run of the season.

Which is why Tomlin dismissed a question about how to prepare for Huntley in the wake of another injury to Jackson.

“We just don’t spend a lot of time formally talking about what quarterback’s playing and its impact,” he said Tuesday. “We just assume that they’re going to come to play, just like we would come to play regardless of who we had at quarterback. That’s football. That’s football at the highest level.”

Tomlin talked of the “quality backups” the Ravens have employed over the past “four or five years.” It actually goes back farther for Tomlin, all the way to his inaugural season as coach.

Here is a look at the first three times Tomlin faced a Ravens backup — and lost:

2007: The other Troy

While Troy Polamalu was inactive for the regular-season finale as the Steelers prepared for the playoffs in Tomlin’s first season as coach, the Ravens turned to rookie quarterback Troy Smith.

The 2006 Heisman Trophy winner, who was making his second career start, led the Ravens to a 27-21 victory that snapped a nine-game losing streak with Kyle Boller and Steve McNair under center. Smith helped the Ravens to 17-0 and 27-7 leads against the Steelers, who also rested quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and started Charlie Batch in his stead.

Smith completed 16 of 27 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown while leading the Ravens to points on their opening three possessions. The Ravens also rushed for 180 yards, exposing cracks in the Steelers defense heading into the postseason against Jacksonville.

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Batch rallied the Steelers with two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter but was intercepted late to seal the win for the Ravens.

“We knew this game didn’t mean anything,” linebacker James Farrior said. “But we’re all professionals, and we all wanted to go out and do well. We didn’t do that.”

Smith didn’t start another NFL game until 2010 with San Francisco.

2015: Hit by a ‘Mallet’

With starter Joe Flacco suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Week 11, it ended his run of 15 consecutive starts against the Steelers dating to his rookie year. The Ravens had Matt Schaub and Jimmy Clausen make starts down the stretch. For the penultimate game against the Steelers, they turned to Ryan Mallett.

Signed to a contract 12 days before his start against the Steelers, Mallett passed for a career-high 274 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions while leading the Ravens to a 20-17 win. It would be the final win of his five-year NFL career.

The loss hurt the Steelers’ playoff chances, dropping their record to 9-6. They entered the final week needing a win and some help to get into the postseason. That they ultimately reached the playoffs only magnified the unexpected loss to Mallett.

The Steelers entered the game as 10.5-point favorites and had scored at least 30 points in six consecutive games — something unheard of with this year’s offense. Behind Mallett, the Ravens never trailed, led 13-3 at halftime and built a 20-10 advantage in the fourth quarter. The win improved them to 5-10.

“When you have failure in life, sometimes woven into the failure are great successes and great wins,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “Woven into our season are pretty amazing successes and wins that our players have had (by) the way they have stuck together, the way they’ve practiced, the way they’ve improved, even with the injuries.”

2019: End of ‘Duck’ season

With the Ravens having wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the AFC, Jackson was rested in the season finale of his MVP season. The Steelers, trying to get into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, could only turn to “Duck” Hodges.

The magic already had started to wear off for Hodges, who was benched the previous week against the New York Jets. But Mason Rudolph injured his shoulder in that game, so Hodges was called upon again to finish out the season.

With RGIII at quarterback, the Ravens relied on a strong running game to waltz to a 28-10 victory. The loss was the third in a row for the Steelers after an 8-5 start and sent them home for the offseason.

The Steelers got a Benny Snell touchdown for a 7-6 lead in the second quarter, but the Ravens got 10 points in the final two minutes to make it 16-7. Griffin passed for just 96 yards, but the Ravens rushed for 223, led by 130 from Gus Edwards.

“It’s super upsetting,” Steelers cornerback Joe Haden said. “We had all the talent to feel like we could make something happen once we got to the dance. Not being in (stinks). It’s all our faults. We had control of our destiny.”