Well, that sucked. Again.
Six days after getting bullied in Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Steelers hit the road again, this time for a trip to Baltimore to take on the Ravens in a key AFC North matchup. With a win, the Steelers would have locked up the AFC North crown.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen Saturday night. The Steelers had two costly turnovers from QB Russell Wilson, didn’t have the ball bounce their way on some Ravens mistakes, and had no answers for Derrick Henry in the run game, leading to a 34-17 loss that dropped them to 10-5 on the season.
Now, it’s a short turnaround four days later on Christmas Day against the Kansas City Chiefs. Let’s get to some grades before shifting focus to the Chiefs.
QB — C
Wilson’s two turnovers were killers. The first one, which came at the end of a 19-yard scramble, led to a turnover at the Ravens’ 4-yard line, taking away any chance at points for the Steelers. The fact that Wilson utilized his legs quite a bit in the game was very encouraging, but he got overzealous on the scramble. He tried to score when he should have just taken the big chunk play and lived to fight another down.
Then, the pick-six was just a late, bad throw that was behind TE MyCole Pruitt and was an easy walk-in touchdown for Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey.
Outside of those two mistakes, I thought Wilson was solid and gave the Steelers a real shot in the game, spreading the ball around, making some big-time throws down the field and willing the offense up and down the field.
Wilson finished 22-of-33 for 217 yards and two touchdowns, hitting Pruitt for a 1-yard score and RB Cordarrelle Patterson for a 12-yard touchdown. He also made some magic happen on the move, extending plays and connecting with the likes of Calvin Austin III and Ben Skowronek for big plays.
But it’s hard to overcome the two costly turnovers in the end.
RB — C+
Jaylen Warren emerged as the go-to running back in this game, out-snapping and out-touching Najee Harris in the loss. Warren ran hard and had real juice to his game again, which gave the Ravens some trouble at times. He finished with 48 rushing yards on 12 carries and chipped in with five receptions for 44 yards, though he did have a fumble that he ended up recovering.
We’ll see if that RB shift was just an in-game thing with Warren having more success, or if the Steelers are going to turn to the former undrafted free agent more.
It wasn’t as if Harris was bad, either. He had 42 yards on nine carries and had a nice 11-yard run just as the Steelers seemed to be getting going. But there were times where he was stuck in the mud behind the line of scrimmage, which allowed the Ravens to swarm. Warren wasn’t doing that.
Patterson didn’t see much action offensively, but he made a great catch on the 12-yard touchdown pass from Wilson, hauling in the pass through contact from Ravens LB Malik Harrison and tying things up at 17-17. That was a huge moment in the game, but in the blink of an eye, the Ravens went down the field and scored to take the lead again.
WR — C+
Seeing the most snaps of any WR on the night, Calvin Austin III had a really solid performance as a de facto WR1 for the Black and Gold. Austin hauled in four passes for 65 yards, including a huge 44-yard shot down the sideline to spark the Steelers. He also had a pivotal 16-yard catch to convert a 3rd and 6 on the Patterson touchdown drive, too.
The only real negative for Austin was on the failed 4th and 6 deep shot from Wilson that was well-covered by the Ravens and was such a low-percentage play on a change-of-possession down.
Van Jefferson had a nice 21-yard catch to set up the Steelers’ first score of the game and finished with two receptions for 27 yards. Ben Skowronek was a key playmaker until sustaining a hip injury. He had big 17-yard reception up the seam early and then made a nice sliding grab for an 8-yard gain to help the Steelers convert after Wilson scrambled and extended the play.
Mike Williams finished with three receptions for 24 yards, including an 18-yarder in the second half that was a good sign. But once again, his snaps were limited, and he wasn’t targeted as much as he should have been.
TE — C-
It was nice to see MyCole Pruitt get into the end zone on a 1-yard pass from Wilson to get the Steelers on the board. It was a nice play design, too. But after that, there’s no reason Pruitt should be seeing multiple targets in a game. He was targeted on the game-changing pick-six, too, on a play the Ravens have always defended well this season against the Steelers.
Pat Freiermuth was mainly non-existent in this game, which was puzzling. He saw just three targets while catching three passes for 16 yards and wasn’t much of a factor in the passing game. Darnell Washington didn’t see a single target.
Connor Heyward had one catch for 3 yards, which was his first reception since Wilson took over as the starter in Week 7. The TEs weren’t a factor in the run game, either.
OL — D+
I thought the Steelers ran the ball pretty well, settling in after a slow start. The guys up front started to really move people and control the line of scrimmage in the run game as the Steelers ran for 117 yards on 24 carries, putting up nearly 5 yards a tote.
In pass protection, though, the Steelers struggled. Wilson was sacked three times and had to try and avoid numerous pressures, too. The Steelers really didn’t have many answers for Odafe Oweh or Kyle Van Noy on the night. Even nose tackle Michael Pierce recorded a sack.
DL — D-
Largely a disaster from the Steelers’ defensive line. Granted, missing Larry Ogunjobi is huge, and Cameron Heyward did all that he could, finishing with six tackles and a tackle for loss. But this group didn’t control the line of scrimmage at all and allowed the Ravens to run at will.
Isaiahh Loudermilk played a number of snaps in place of Ogunjobi and had five tackles while Dean Lowry had one tackle and played quite a few snaps, too.
Keeanu Benton flashed as a pass rusher early, but he didn’t have an impact against the run and had just one tackle. Montravius Adams saw some snaps, too, and was impactful against the run with one tackle and was consistently in the backfield disrupting things.
LB — D
Missed tackles are a massive problem right now for the Steelers, and it starts at linebacker.
Elandon Roberts missed a tackle in space against Derrick Henry on a checkdown, though he did redeem himself later flying downhill on 3rd and 1 to record a TFL and force a punt. Payton Wilson had three tackles as the Steelers rolled out 3-ILB sets at times.
Patrick Queen wasn’t impactful at all, either, and was part of some miscommunications, too, which was frustrating and led to his pointed comments after the game. Queen had eight tackles and a pass breakup in the loss.
On the outside, T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith had their moments, with Highsmith recording a strip-sack on the first drive of the game. But outside of that, just eight combined tackles and no real splash outside of the strip sack that didn’t bounce the Steelers’ way. Watt had some missed tackles, too.
DB — F
I know the Steelers were without two key starters in the secondary to start the game with DeShon Elliott and Donte Jackson on the shelf. Joey Porter Jr. joined them shortly after, so the Steelers were depleted.
But that doesn’t excuse the struggles in coverage and the inability to communicate clearly this late in the season.
On two of Lamar Jackson’s three touchdown passes, there was miscommunication between Minkah Fitzpatrick and veteran defenders in Queen and Cameron Sutton, leading to easy scores. That flat-out can’t happen.
The Ravens went after Cory Trice Jr. over and over again, and that wasn’t a surprise. A guy getting back onto the field for the first time since Week 3, he should be targeted. The Ravens had a great deal of success. They also got Zay Flowers matched up on Beanie Bishop Jr. and went for the home run, connecting on a huge play in the fourth quarter that all but put the game away.
It was great to see Minkah Fitzpatrick get his hands on a football again, recording an interception on a great play and read. But it didn’t matter in the end.
Special Teams — B+
Heck of a job by Chris Boswell on his 51-yard field goal to end the half, drilling it with no problem. He’s the best kicker in the game, period.
Punter Corliss Waitman had a strong night, too, averaging nearly 50 yards on five punts, downing three of them inside the Ravens’ 20-yard line.
James Pierre forced a fumble on Ravens punt returner Desmond King that was there for the taking for the Steelers, but they couldn’t recover it. King also muffed a punt late in the game that the Steelers couldn’t get on. Frustrating night.
