The Pittsburgh Steelers are on the verge of reaching the playoffs. Mike Tomlin's team was able to battle through a stormy Baltimore and pull out a 17-10 victory, keeping their chances alive for one of the final wild card spots.
Overall, it was a tough task for these two AFC North rivals given the humid weather in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium. It also made sledding difficult for all ball carriers, with both teams fumbling the ball twice in this contest. The first half was largely quiet for these offenses aside from a respective touchdown drive to have each going into the break tied at seven apiece. Even when they came out to start the third game, there were five consecutive punts before the most crucial moment of the game occurred.
On the first play of the fourth quarter and facing a third-and-4 situation from their own 29-yard line, Mason Rudolph threw a dart across the middle of the field to Diontae Johnson, who carried the ball 71 yards to the house for go up 14-7. Considering the elements, it was a grueling score for Baltimore, who couldn't really sniff a comeback. After Gus Edwards fumbled with just seven minutes left in regulation, the Steelers increased their lead to go up by two scores and effectively left the Ravens in the dust.
Sure, Baltimore rested most of its starters in this game with the No. 1 seed already intact, but it was a monumental victory for Pittsburgh. With this win intact, they will be looking for either a Bills loss, a Jaguars loss or tie, or a tie between the Texans and Colts. If any of these events happen, they're there.
Rudolph finished his night 18 of 20 for 152 yards and a touchdown. Diontae Johnson caught four of his five targets for 89 yards and that key fourth-quarter score. Najee Harris had 112 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. Meanwhile, Tyler Huntley was 15 of 28 for 146 yards and a touchdown.
Also in that game, Steelers star passer TJ Watt was ruled out in the second half after suffering a knee injury. By NFL Mediathe Defensive Player of the Year candidate reportedly suffered a grade 3 MCL sprain. Before going down, he collected two sacks and eight tackles.
To learn more about how this game plays out, check out our takeaways below.
Why the Steelers won
On a night where the weather had a huge impact on what these teams could do offensively, the Steelers managed to make a few more plays on that side of the ball. They managed to get the scoring started with a 76-yard touchdown drive that ended with a Najee Harris touchdown run, and then Johnson's 71-yard score in the fourth quarter was all they needed to secure the victory. In particular, Harris was a key cog in the offense as it relied primarily on the ground game. He was one of the few running backs who didn't fumble and had 26 carries out of the backfield for 112 yards and a touchdown. His ability to keep the chains moving certainly helped the offensive sweet spot in the second half. Defensively, the pass rush feasted on Huntley as it constantly kept him moving and was able to sack him four times. It was truly a stopping effort in the second half where they forced four punts and a fumble on five of the final six drives.
Why the Ravens lost
Baltimore didn't really pack a legitimate punch in this game as John Harbaugh opted to rest starters like Lamar Jackson and others. Although they managed to stay close, there wasn't much breakup within the offense as expected. Tyler Huntly had just five passing yards for the game until the 10:15 mark of the second quarter and the unit averaged just 3.9 yards per play for the game. They momentarily got into rhythm before halftime with Isaiah Likely scoring their only touchdown of the game, but the offense went quiet after that. And the inexperience in saving in the game showed with a delay of game penalty on the very first play of the second half. Of course, turnovers proved critical, particularly Gus Edwards coughing up the ball late in the fourth quarter, which effectively eliminated their comeback hopes (more on that below).
Turning point
Dionate Johnson's 71-yard touchdown run is the real turning point of this game, but we'll get into that a little more below. In this second, we'll look at an underrated moment that helped Pittsburgh secure the victory. After the offense was down three, the Ravens offense got the ball back with just under eight minutes left in regulation at their 20-yard line. However, on the second play of this possession, Gus Edwards fumbled the ball as Eric Rowe was able to free the ball. Pittsburgh recovered and took possession deep in Baltimore territory.
Although the Steelers offense failed to concede with a touchdown, they chipped away at 4:01, forced the Ravens to use all three of their timeouts and kicked a 25-yard field goal to go up by two scores . . It was an impactful turn of events for Baltimore, which left them with no realistic chance of making a late comeback, despite the last-second field goal on the ensuing drive.
Game of the game
Both of these offenses were pretty stagnant over the first three quarters. They each had a single touchdown, but beyond that they were either punting or fumbling. That was until the very first play of the fourth quarter when Mason Rudolph was faced with a third-and-4 situation from the Pittsburgh 29-yard line. That's when he made his best throw of the day, which was a lead up the middle to Diontae Johnson, who raced 71 yards to the house to break the score by seven.
This angle in particular shows Rudolph hitting Johnson in stride and threading the needle through several Ravens defenders.
It was the longest touchdown reception of Johnson's career and gave the Steelers the lead for the rest of the game.
And after
As we noted above, Pittsburgh now needs one of the following situations: a Bills loss to the Dolphins at Miami on Sunday, a Jaguars loss to the Titans at Tennessee on Sunday, or if the Texans- Colts Saturday ends in a tie. . If any of these situations occur, they advance to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Baltimore is already locked into the No. 1 seed in the AFC, so they will now take advantage of the break and wait for whoever is the lower seed to come out of the wild card round.