If you’re an outsider, a Houston Texans fan, a Seattle Seahawks fan, a Denver Broncos fan (also: I am so very sorry), you could be forgiven for glancing at the Pittsburgh Steelers/Baltimore Ravens box score, a 17-10 Steelers win, and not thinking much of it. Couple touchdowns, a few field goals, a pretty normal game where Pittsburgh probably got a stop late. Right?
Man, you don’t know Steelers/Ravens.
As Dave Bryan and I talked about all week, it would be peak Steelers to get blown out by the Houston Texans one week and beat the favored Baltimore Ravens the next. That’s exactly what happened. This is what the Steelers do. Every time you’re about to leave them, they pull you back in. They’ll emotionally hurt you but show up by your window, boombox playing your favorite song (Renegade, duh) and ask for you back. And you’ll come back to them. You always do.
About that 17-10. Neither team took normal paths to get there. Sure, on the Ravens’ end, they found the end zone and kicked a field goal, ho hum, but they had roughly 1,000 chances to add more points. Their receivers dropped so many passes someone should check their FanDuel accounts. Rashod Bateman dropped a touchdown, Zay Flowers dropped passes, Nelson Agholor dropped passes…well, ok, he always does that.
Baltimore should’ve had at least 13 points at the half, a number the Steelers can hardly conceive scoring over the first 30 minutes. Facing 4th and 2 at Pittsburgh’s 23, they tried to draw the Steelers offsides. Instead, they DJ Khaled’d (he’s still cool, right? Right?) and played themselves into being unprepared for center Tyler Linderbaum to snap the ball, leading to a pressure, incompletion, and no points.
After WR Gunner Olszewski’s gift of a fumble on a fourth quarter punt, the Ravens gifted things right back with a jump ball that rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. picked off. It was a great play by the rookie but three more points Baltimore should’ve had. Instead, the Steelers led a game-winning drive.
As for the Steelers? Where to begin. The first-half offense was just offensive, puttering around and putting up three points. They didn’t come out of the second half any stronger. Instead, special teams gave the Steelers a jolt in the arm, S Miles Killebrew blocking the third punt of his Steelers’ career. The ball – barely – rolled out of the end zone, TE Rodney Williams inches shy of recovering it for a touchdown instead of a safety, making it a 10-5 game (which, is, in fact, not Scorigami – who knew?).
Another stalled drive led to a second Chris Boswell field goal to make it 10-8. At that point, you couldn’t tell if these were the Orioles and Pirates or Steelers and Ravens playing. And I don’t know which is more improbable – Pittsburgh’s baseball or football team scoring eight points.
Following Olszewski’s fumble and Porter’s interception, Pittsburgh finally put the ball in the end zone, QB Kenny Pickett to WR George Pickens from 41 yards out. Another Boswell field goal gave them margin even though that was done in junior varsity fashion. Just looking to kneel the ball, the Steelers were penalized for illegal formation, stopping the clock and giving the Ravens real time to mount one last drive. Pittsburgh apparently borrows its end-of-game plans from Mario Cristobal.
A T.J. Watt sack ended the game, which it seems like he does to cap every win, and the Steelers advanced to 3-2 and once again sit in first place of the AFC North. Was it ugly? Yes. Is it almost hard to feel good about the victory? Kinda. Are you still processing what you saw, figuring out if that was actual football? Probably. That’s Steelers’ football, baby. Drink up.
That’s how this team wins. They don’t win big. They don’t win pretty. They make you renounce your fandom 20 times during the game, chant to fire the offensive coordinator three times, and then hug and cheer on your way out Acrisure Stadium. The. System. Works.
The Steelers worked. Good enough, anyway. They’re always in need of being fixed, dialed in, and tuned up. But they’re winning. Enjoy that.
