Bill Cowher knows a thing or two about one of the best rivalries in football between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. He was around for its advent in 1996 when the Ravens became a team. Cowher holds a 14-9 all-time record against the Ravens, including one playoff meeting in 2001, with Cowher’s squad winning 27-10.
Like the rest of us, Bill Cowher is still reeling from the Steelers’ 28-14 loss to the Ravens in the Wild Card round last night.
“This game was total domination by the Baltimore Ravens,” Cowher said via CBS Sports’ That Other Pregame Show. “One of the drives was 13 plays, and they were all runs. They ran the ball for 300 yards. That is winning at the line of scrimmage. That is imposing your will on a football team. And I’ll tell you, that is something you have to sit with now this whole offseason. So that was a complete domination, a big disappointment for the Pittsburgh Steelers showing up how they did.”
The Steelers were bouncing between 9.5 and 10-point underdogs all week. That seemed disrespectful, but it was actually understated in the end. The loss is one thing, but the nature of the loss really was an eye-opening experience for the Steelers.
Just look at this series of stats from our Alex Kozora
Rivalry and postseason records were being set, and the Steelers barely put up a fight other than a brief glimmer of hope in the second half.
That was supposed to be the Steelers’ identity this season. They wanted to “roll people,” as Tomlin put it following the NFL Draft last year. Over the last four weeks of the regular season, and especially in this playoff loss, the Steelers were rolled. They wanted to run the ball, they got ran all over while having 11 carries for 29 yards of their own. They wanted to get off the field on defense and possess the ball, and they allowed 29 first downs and nearly 40 minutes of possession.
Ultimately, they had no business trying to make that their identity, and another team showed them what it was supposed to look like. It was a complete team failure from the ownership to the front office and from the coaching staff to the players. Nothing about the 2024 offseason philosophy worked.
