The Baltimore Ravens fell to 6-5 on the season at the hands of the still undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers, who were able to edge out a 19-14 win over their division rival during a rare Wednesday afternoon matchup. Of course, this game had been delayed three times due to a COVID-19 outbreak hitting the Ravens organization. Despite that, John Harbaugh's team remained competitive for the bulk of the contest and nearly had a lead heading into halftime with a backup quarterback and without his top two running backs active.
It was at that point where a bit of controversy has spilled. After a Justice Hill three-yard run to put Baltimore on the Steelers one-yard line, the Ravens called their third and final timeout of the half with 26 seconds on the clock. On the other side of that timeout, they tried to punch in the touchdown on the back of Gus Edwards, but he was stopped short.
As the clock continued to tick down, Steelers players weren't exactly in a hurry to line up, knowing full well that they are bleeding value time to help prevent Baltimore from scoring. At the time, Harbaugh was stating his strong case that there should have been a delay of game penalty, which would have stopped the clock. Nevertheless, officials didn't pull out the flag, the clock continued to creep down and the Robert Griffin III needed to quickly snap the ball. The ensuing play -- a pass to Luke Wilson in the back of the end zone -- was unsuccessful.
Steelers doing everything they can to run the clock down😅
— PFF (@PFF) December 2, 2020
Should this have been a flag?pic.twitter.com/7QeXGq7VxL
"We knew we had enough time to run the two plays we wanted to run," Harbaugh said after the game, via the official team website. "I just feel like if you're laying on the ground like that, you're either injured or it's delay of game. That was a pretty clear-cut type of a deal. That's how we felt about it."
It's worth noting that former NFL referee and current NBC analyst Terry McAulay shared his thoughts on the play during the broadcast and said the actions by those Steelers players should have warranted a penalty.
"Definitely they were laying on top of our guys and not trying to get up," Robert Griffin III said. "But, we did get the play off and had an opportunity to score a touchdown there and we just didn't complete that."
So instead of coming away with either seven, six or three points, Baltimore had to settle for zero, laying waste to an 11-play, 74-yard drive prior to the half. That certainly stings when you lose by just five points.
