Lamar Jackson and the Ravens can beat elite teams. In loss to Steelers, they didn’t show it.
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BALTIMORE — Lamar Jackson patted both sides of his helmet as his defensive teammates ran past him along the Baltimore Ravens sideline, an acceptance of blame. The Ravens had entered halftime up 10 points over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the scoreboard and even more in control on the field. Their defense was stifling. Their running game was dominating. They were taking command of the division.
On the first play of the second half, Jackson lofted a back-foot wobbler deep toward his tight end. A Steelers linebacker peeled off a receiver in the flat, leaped and snared the pass. The interception set up a Steelers touchdown. It served as one of the keystones of the Steelers’ 28-24 victory over the Ravens. It underscored why the Ravens lost their grip on the AFC North on Sunday afternoon and what questions they must answer to reclaim a place atop the conference, a spot they lost last January.
The Steelers, without question, occupy that perch now. They remained the NFL’s last unbeaten team at 7-0, even if they were not the best team on the M&T Bank Stadium field for much of Sunday, and even if it took a pass breakup as time expired to hold off Baltimore’s final scoring attempt. The Steelers made the biggest plays, fashioned an offense on the fly when their initial plan malfunctioned, avoided major mistakes and capitalized on Baltimore’s turnovers and penalties. The Steelers did not fold, but the Ravens’ miscues converted their opponents’ resilience into victory.
When other franchises would have fallen off, the Steelers stayed on course
Jackson threw two interceptions, including one on his first pass of the day, which linebacker Robert Spillane — the replacement for injured star Devin Bush — returned 33 yards for a touchdown. Jackson also fumbled inside the Steelers’ 10-yard line twice, once in the first half and again on a 4th and 3 after the two-minute warning, on a draw play that likely would have been short even if he held on.
“No turnovers, we win the game,” Jackson said. “I put that on me.”
Can the reigning MVP beat good teams? It’s not a question often asked. And it is unfair to Jackson, because the answer is yes — he’s done it. But it is the question that hangs over the Ravens now as they prepare to face the AFC South-leading Indianapolis Colts. The Ravens are still trying to live up to last season and live down how it finished.
Jackson entered Sunday with a reputation, largely undeserved, for brilliance against also-rans and failure against elite teams. Jackson has lost both playoff games of his career, including an annihilation at the hands of the Tennessee Titans as a huge home favorite last season. He is 0-2 against the Kansas City Chiefs. But Jackson’s Ravens also trounced the then-undefeated Patriots, edged the eventual NFC champion 49ers and beat the Seahawks in Seattle last year. His resume against playoff-caliber teams is not as barren as detractors claim.
Still, Sunday’s performance will not put to rest the queasy notion that Jackson’s MVP form does not hold in the biggest moments. In Baltimore’s two most important games this season, Jackson has played his worst. In a Week 3 showdown against the Chiefs, Jackson passed for 98 yards in a blowout loss. He committed four turnovers Sunday.
Those two losses were not of the same kind. The Chiefs demolished the Ravens in every way. The Ravens probably should have beaten the Steelers. They gained 265 rushing yards — 65 of them from Jackson — and also out-passed Pittsburgh, 208-182. The Ravens gained 5.7 yards per play to the Steelers’ 4.4. All four turnovers either cost them a likely score or led directly to a Steelers touchdown. The Ravens committed nine penalties for 110 yards, which owed partly to Pittsburgh’s aggressiveness in trying to draw pass interference downfield.
“We played a lot of really good football,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said. “We played some dominant football at times.”
“We did not play well today,” Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said. “It is important that we don’t lie to ourselves. We did not function well in a lot of ways today. Baltimore had a lot to do with that.”
The Ravens’ loss will still force them to regroup in crucial ways. Late in the first quarter, a pass rusher rolled into the left leg of Ronnie Stanley, one of the best left tackles in football and the recipient this week of a five-year, $99 million contract extension. Stanley’s ankle got trapped under a body and bent awkwardly, and he screamed in pain. Medical personnel wrapped Stanley’s leg in an aircast, the entire Ravens team gathered around him and a cart drove him away. Harbaugh confirmed after the season that Stanley will miss the remainder of the season with the ankle injury.
The Ravens also must solve issues in their passing game around Jackson. Second-year wideout Marquise Brown, a first-round pick in 2019, entered the season expected to make a leap forward. He is in position to be a No. 1 wide receiver, but he had caught 26 passes for 376 yards before Sunday. Jackson targeted him twice Sunday, and he caught one of them for a three-yard touchdown.
About an hour after the final whistle, Brown tweeted, and later deleted without explanation, “What’s the point of having souljas when you never use them (Never!!)”
The Ravens’ issues are still high-class problems. They could have beaten Pittsburgh, even after the mistakes. On the final snap of the game, Jackson whistled a pass down the seam to Willie Snead, who summoned the courage to leap for the ball as two Steelers converged. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick rocked him high while another defender hit him low. The ball jarred loose.
On the field, Ravens players and Harbaugh argued for a flag on Fitzpatrick for an illegal hit to the head. While CBS rules expert and former official Gene Steratore said the right call was made, Harbaugh still thought the Ravens had been wronged afterward.
“You want to see your players protected,” Harbaugh said. “You want to see your guys protected like the rules say they should be.”
Fitzpatrick blew kisses and waved to the smattering of fans allowed inside, a scene that would not have been expected hours earlier. The Steelers fell flat in the first half, not scoring aside from Spillane’s pick-six.
“We were anticipating this matchup way too much,” tight end Eric Ebron said. “We just needed to settle down.”
In the second half, the Steelers frequently inserted third-down running back Jaylen Samuels and used two tight ends to coax Baltimore into using bigger personnel, then spread their five eligible receivers and let Roethlisberger direct the offense. The Steelers had rarely used that personnel group, and so Roethlisberger essentially concocted a playbook on the fly. On the game-winning drive, which he capped with a dart to rookie Chase Claypool, Roethlisberger would tell linemen a protection and assign each receiver a pattern.
“People always say, my whole career, it’s been backyard football,” Roethlisberger said. “Today, it was in its truest form.”
Always hostile and always intense, this season’s first Steelers-Ravens matchup included higher tangible stakes. The NFL’s new playoff structure added an extra entrant and grants only the best team in each conference a bye. Given the complexion of the AFC, the Steelers did not just beat the Ravens. They also earned the inside track at avoiding the first round of the playoffs.
For the Ravens to avenge their crushing playoff failure of last season, they will almost certainly have to do it without the bye. Jackson and the Ravens showed they are good enough to beat the league’s best teams. Everybody is still waiting for this version of the Ravens to do it.