Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-19 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
WINNERS
Chris Wormley: Solid revenge game for the ex-Raven, who sacked Lamar Jackson twice on Sunday. He’s now up to 3.5 sacks on the year, a career-high for him. Wormley certainly doesn’t bring the high-upside ability of Stephon Tuitt but he’s been consistently good throughout the season and by far the team’s second-best defensive lineman behind Cam Heyward.
TJ Watt: Watt was huge in this one with 3.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, and six QB hits. An early pressure led to Minkah Fitzpatrick’s red zone INT on the Ravens’ opening drive. He took over in big moments, as he always does. Big time players make big time plays in big time moments.
Ben Roethlisberger: Stats didn’t always show it but Roethlisberger played well today. Roethlisberger helped lead the comeback and finished the day with a pair of TD passes to Diontae Johnson. He didn’t have to run the show quite the way he did but he put on a show and had a classic-Ben performance in one of his final games at Heinz Field.
O-Line Pass Protection: Overall, this o-line held up in the pass game against the Ravens’ blitz looks. Baltimore got a couple of guys free but that seemed more on the backs or receivers missing their protection or hot reads. Especially with a guy like John Leglue in the lineup, his NFL debut and the Steelers’ 5th left guard of the season, I gotta give that group credit in pass pro. Leglue and Dan Moore Jr. got a good second half push in the run game.
Ahkello Witherspoon: Maybe not the big winner of the day but he got the start as the Steelers search for Joe Haden’s replacement. Witherspoon held his own. Not as physical as you’d like for a Steelers/Ravens game but his third down midpoint and breakup against Mark Andrews was an obviously critical and a great finish to get Pittsburgh the ball back. No major mistakes, no big plays, which is more than you can say more James Pierre. He was glued to the bench today, not even seeing action in dime packages.
LOSERS
Chase Claypool: Claypool struggled in this one, getting too caught up hand-fighting in the first half on a third down deep ball, the ball hitting off his outstretched hand for an incompletion. It seemed like Claypool missed some hots and RPO reads too, leading to visible frustration from Roethlisberger on the sideline. He did have a long catch on a second half crossed but again, Claypool’s game doesn’t match his physical game.
Third Down Offense: Got off to a 0-4 start before the Steelers converted their first third down. Frustratingly, the Steelers came out committed to the run against a Ravens’ brick wall. It consistently put them in third and long against Baltimore’s exotic looks, allowing them to bring pressure and create havoc. Like much of the offense, they salvaged things in the second half, finishing 5/12 but it was a tough start out of the gate.
1st Half Run Focus: Which appeared to be Matt Canada’s gameplan. That’s usually the correct strategy but to beat the Ravens, running is like banging your head into a brick wall. This should’ve been Ben Roethlisberger’s show from snap one. Some of the problems were execution-related, like Johnson’s dropped touchdown, but the Steelers’ offense did very little overall, especially in the first half. 2nd and 10 is conceding a punt against Baltimore. That’s how it played out.
Time Of Possession: Again, focus here is on the first half. Which is a unit wide stat. Offense unable to sustain drives, defense unable to get off the field. Time of possession was about as lopsided as it could be in a single game. And a tired Steelers’ defense was forced to chase Lamar Jackson around which only gassed them more. Pittsburgh righted the ship in the second half.
Joe Schobert: Fans pick on Devin Bush a lot but Schobert hasn’t played much better. He struggled in coverage and looked slow in space while missing tackles on third downs. Schobert has been better than Bush but his play deserves more criticism than it’s getting.
