The Steelers And Ravens Played The Quintessential AFC North Game, Much To Football Fans’ Dismay

When one thinks of AFC North football, images of low-scoring, plodding football swung by huge plays on defense and special teams come to mind. And, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens played what may be the ultimate example of that on Sunday, as the Steelers rallied to win, 17-10.

Was it good football? No, probably not. Was it fun football? No, probably not. Was it AFC North football? Absolutely.

I think most expected it to be a slog from the Pittsburgh Steelers on offense. After all, it’s arguably been the league’s worst unit so far this season. And, the Baltimore Ravens came in with the league’s third-ranked defense. But, many expected the Ravens offense to be much better than they were against a good Steelers defense, but one that has shown it can be scored on this year.

Instead, we got a complete slog. There were ten total punts, two total touchdowns, and it was a miracle the total number of points ever got to 27.

For a while the game, was very sleepy. The Ravens were cruising, albeit a little too much so, with a 10-3 lead for most of the second half. But, a blocked punt that was almost recovered for a touchdown by Pittsburgh and was ultimately a safety turned the whole game around.

Pittsburgh would get a Chris Boswell field goal on the ensuing possession, and a quick three-and-out had them set to get the ball back. And then, AFC North football broke out in a big way.

A fumble on the punt by Steelers’ return man Gunner Olszewski flipped the field, and the Ravens looked to put the game on ice until a mysterious goal line fade call on 3rd and goal from the five-yard-line to Odell Beckham Jr. was intercepted by rookie Joey Porter Jr. AFC North football.

The Steelers would eventually score on this pass from Kenny Pickett to George Pickens. Pickens had a monster game, as he had six catches for 130 yards and a touchdown.

Pittsburgh’s defense closed it out, as a strip sack of Lamar Jackson set up a quick field goal as the Ravens used their timeouts and a penalty stopped the clock. But, with under a minute left and no timeouts, the Ravens were unable to get anywhere close to scoring, and superstar TJ Watt ended it with a sack.

The funniest part about this game is that I don’t think either fan base is particularly thrilled about what went on, especially on offense.

For the Ravens, that was a downright embarrassing offensive performance. It wasn’t even the play calling by first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken. He had receivers schemed open all day long. But, drops, a big slip, and some poor throws by Lamar Jackson hurt the offense. The goal-to-go situation after the muffed punt is certainly something they’d like to have back, but mostly it was just execution. Overall, it’s a crushing loss, because they’re no excuse to lose to that Steelers offense right now, especially when 13 points probably would’ve been enough to win the game and ten had already been scored by the twelve-minute-mark of the 2nd quarter.

For the Steelers, aside from that go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, it was another putrid offensive performance. Yes, they got the win. But, this team isn’t particularly close to a Super Bowl contender. Even at 3-2 and in first place in the AFC North now, this isn’t even a playoff team, in my opinion. All these ugly wins that they’ve had so many of the last two or three years do is take them further away from the top of the first round to draft a franchise quarterback.