With no Zay Flowers at wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers entered Saturday night’s Wild Card matchup on the road knowing they needed to stack the box and smash the run for the Ravens.
They knew that was the path to success, and yet they had no answer for the Ravens’ rushing attack all night long.
Future Hall of Fame running back Derrick Henry did whatever he wanted in the matchup, as did likely NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. The Steelers seemingly put a huge emphasis on stopping Henry on the read-options, which gave Jackson plenty of space to operate.
Then, when the Steelers adjusted to Jackson utilizing his legs more, they were unable to find any way to slow down Henry.
For former NFL GM Doug Whaley, who appeared on WPXI’s The Black & Gold Zone show following the 28-14 loss to the Ravens Saturday night, what Baltimore was able to do in the run game against the Steelers was like the goods against the backups, and big brother showing little brother how to play playoff football.
“They looked like they were in practices. It looked like goods against the backup. They had the big brother showing the little brother how to play playoff-style football,” Whaley said of the performance from the Steelers’ defense against the run, according to video via WPXI. “And they had no answer, and it’s just disappointing because you have the most expensive defense out there, you have people like Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, which right now I can see everyone questioning he [Fitzpatrick] be back and if he’s going to come back should he take a pay cut because he had a tough day at the office.
“And all around, I think the Steelers just really dribbled it down their legs.”
For all the talk during the week leading up to the playoff matchup, the focus was on stopping the run and righting some of the wrongs that occurred defensively in the 34-17 loss to the Ravens in Week 16.
Yet, once the game started, the Steelers were left flailing, trying to come up with any sort of answer for the Ravens’ power rushing attack. Instead of sticking with the mesh-charge against the read-option that worked against Lamar Jackson over the last few years, the Steelers pivoted and focused more on attacking the running back, leaving lanes wide open on the edge for Jackson to pull the ball and run.
Then, when Pittsburgh adjusted, Henry took over.
What served as a clear example of the Steelers having no answers was the 13-play, 85-yard drive that the Ravens went on to take a 14-0 lead. On that drive, the Ravens ran the ball all 13 plays, punishing the Steelers over and over again.
Then, to cap things off just when the Steelers seemed to get back into it at 21-7, Henry ripped off a 44-yard touchdown run through the heart of the Steelers’ defense, making it 28-7, all but ending it.
That expensive defense filled with big names wasn’t ready. Execution was poor, production was terrible, and they simply got bullied.
