Marlon Humphrey was 22 years old in his second NFL season the last time the Ravens beat the Steelers when the latter had their starting quarterback. That was all the way back in 2018, and they have only won twice since then. At least, they had only won twice until last night. After beating Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph, on Saturday night, they beat Russell Wilson.
Not only that, the Ravens prevented the Steelers from claiming the AFC North title while clinching a playoff berth. And Marlon Humphrey has been around longer than just about anybody else at this point, so this meant something extra.
“Man, it’s huge. I think [the Steelers have] definitely gotten the best of us over the years, and I feel like we haven’t played good football”, Humphrey said after the Ravens’ resounding win, via the team’s website. “To clinch [the playoffs] against the Steelers, there’s not a better feeling”.
In fact, the Ravens scored 34 points against the Steelers. That’s the most either team has scored against the other since 2017. Marlon Humphrey was a rookie back then and has since watched his team score under 20 points in eight consecutive games.
Humphrey helped add to the Ravens’ total himself with his first career pick-six. The Steelers had just gotten a big interception from Minkah Fitzpatrick with the Ravens driving. Just a couple plays later, they watched Humphrey run the other way against them. That was the first of six interceptions this season in which he gained any return yards, too.
“Coming into this game, I had zero interception yards, so I was like, ‘Man, hopefully I’m not the first guy to have five or six picks with zero yards’”, Humphrey said, I’m guessing, at least in part jest, “so it was good to try to get that average up”.
A former first-round pick, Humphrey actually is having a surprise career year. Prior to this season, he never had more than three interceptions, and he now has six. It’s only fitting that the Ravens stalwart recorded his first pick-six against the Steelers.
It was a play that felt like a dagger, the Steelers just reclaiming momentum with Fitzpatrick nabbing Lamar Jackson to end a threatening Ravens drive. It was a 24-17 game at the time, but them Marlon Humphrey stepped up.
Interestingly, Humphrey never had an interception against the Steelers before this season, having intercepted one in the Ravens’ loss earlier this year. He now has two, and this one clinched them a playoff berth with a very legitimate chance to claim the division title. If they beat the Texans and Bengals and the Steelers lose to the Chiefs or Bengals, the Ravens are back on top.
