Following each game in the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers season, I will highlight the event or string of events in the game that is the turning point. Not all turning points will be earth-shattering but are meant to give a unique look at how we arrived at the outcome of the game, one that may be hard to see during the live watch.
The Pittsburgh Steelers qualified for the playoffs with a win over the Baltimore Ravens and a Tennessee Titans win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. None of the other paths to the playoffs panned out, so the Steelers’ win over the Ravens ended up being necessary. In a miserable weather game with cold rain from start to finish, the Steelers’ defense evened up the turnover differential in the fourth quarter with a forced fumble to secure victory. There were eight total fumbles in this game with four resulting in a turnover, two for each team. The Steelers fumbled a whopping six times, recovering all but two, and the Ravens fumbled twice losing both of them.
With the score 14-7 in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Ravens got the ball back at their own 20-yard line after a punt from Pressley Harvin III resulted in a touchback. The game was still very much up for grabs with just a one-touchdown difference, but on the second play of the drive a few unlikely heroes rose to the occasion to provide breathing room for the Steelers.
On run up the middle, DT Keeanu Benton was the first there to slow Gus Edwards down. Then S Eric Rowe came in to punch the ball out, and OLB Markus Golden recovered the fumble. Golden was playing a lot more snaps than usual at the end of the game with T.J. Watt injured in the third quarter.
The Ravens sat a number of starters, but on this play Benton was going against starting LG John Simpson. Off the line, you can see Benton bat down Simpson’s punch and swim over him to the outside. Once Benton saw Edwards running the opposite direction, he laid out and caught Edwards’ foot to trip him up. That is an impressive play on its own given how much distance Benton had to close after he swam outside and away from the play. He knocked Edwards off balance and Rowe came crashing down from playing up high as a safety to punch the ball out.
That was Rowe’s second turnover forced in three games played for the Steelers. He was previously on the practice squad and hadn’t played a single game in the 2023 season prior to his first elevation with the Steelers against the Bengals in Week 16. If you add up each player’s interceptions and forced fumbles for the season, Rowe is tied for the third most on the team.
That is a ton of impact in a short amount of playing time—call him the Mason Rudolph of the defense. His impact was necessary in this game as Rowe’s forced fumble gave the Steelers the ball back in field goal range to make it a two-score game. With Minkah Fitzpatrick, Damontae Kazee, and possibly Trenton Thompson set to return this week, it will be interesting to see how, if at all, Rowe is used against the Buffalo Bills. He has earned the opportunity to contribute in the playoffs with his play the last three weeks.
