The Pittsburgh Steelers are one step closer to reaching the playoffs. Mike Tomlin's team was able to roll into a stormy Baltimore and pull out a 17-10 victory that keeps their chances of securing one of the final wild-card spots alive.
Overall, it was a slog for both of these AFC North Rivals given the damp weather in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium. It also made for tough sledding for all ballcarriers with both teams fumbling the football twice in this contest. The first half was largely quiet for these offenses outside a respective touchdown drive for each to go into the break tied at seven apiece. Even as they came out to start the third, there were five straight punts before the most pivotal moment of the matchup occurred.
On the first play of the fourth quarter and facing a third-and-4 situation from their own 29-yard line, Mason Rudolph threw a dart over the middle of the field to Diontae Johnson, who took the ball 71 yards to the house to go up 14-7. Given the elements, it was the back-breaking score for Baltimore, who couldn't truly sniff a comeback. After Gus Edwards fumbled just outside seven minutes remaining in regulation, the Steelers added to their lead to go up by two scores and effectively left the Ravens in the dust.
Of course, Baltimore was resting most of its starters in this game with the No. 1 seed already intact, but this was a monumental win for Pittsburgh. With this win intact, they'll look for either a Bills loss, a Jaguars loss or tie, or the Texans and Colts to tie. If any of those happen, they're in.
Rudolph finished his night 18-of-20 for 152 yards and a touchdown. Diontae Johnson caught four of his five targets for 89 yards and that key fourth quarter score. Najee Harris rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. Meanwhile, Tyler Huntley was 15-of-28 for 146 yards and a touchdown.
Also in this game, Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt was ruled out in the second half after suffering a knee injury. Per NFL Media, the Defensive Player of the Year candidate is believed to have suffered a Grade 3 MCL sprain. Before going down, he tallied two sacks and eight tackles.
For more on how this game unfolded, check out our takeaways below.
Why the Steelers won
On a night where the weather drastically impacted what these teams could do offensively, the Steelers were able to make just a few more plays on that side of the ball. They were able to get the scoring started with a 76-yard touchdown drive that ended with a Najee Harris touchdown and then the Johnson 71-yard score in the fourth quarter was all they'd end up needing to ensure the win. In particular, Harris was a key cog for the offense as it leaned primarily on the ground game. He was one of the few ballcarriers not to fumble and had 26 carries out of the backfield for 112 yards and a touchdown. His ability to keep the chains moving certainly helped the offense clew clock in the second half. Defensively, the pass rush feasted on Huntley as it constantly kept him on the move and was able to sack him four times. It was really a shutdown effort in the second half where they forced four punts and a fumble on five of the final six drives.
Why the Ravens lost
Baltimore didn't exactly give a legit punch in this game as John Harbaugh opted to rest starters like Lamar Jackson and others. While they were able to hang close, there wasn't much burst within the offense, as expected. Tyler Huntly had just five passing yards for the game up until the 10:15 mark of the second quarter and the unit only averaged 3.9 yards per play for the game. They momentarily got into a rhythm before the half with Isaiah Likely scoring their lone touchdown of the game, but the offense went silent after that. And the inexperience with backups in the game showed with a delay of game penalty on the very first play of the second half. Of course, the turnovers proved to be critical, particularly Gus Edwards coughing up the football late in the fourth quarter that effectively eliminated their comeback hopes (more on that below).
Turning point
Dionate Johnson's 71-yard touchdown is the true turning point in this game, but we'll feature that a bit more below. In this second, we'll look at an underrated moment that helped Pittsburgh ensure the victory. After the offense went three-and-out, the Ravens offense got the ball back with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation at their 20-yard line. On just the second play of that possession, however, Gus Edwards fumbled the football as Eric Rowe was able to punch the ball free. Pittsburgh recovered and took possession deep in Baltimore territory.
While the Steelers offense wasn't able to cash in with a touchdown, they chewed 4:01 off of the clock, forced the Ravens to use all three of their timeouts, and netted a 25-yard field goal to go up by two scores. That was a gut-punching turn of events for Baltimore, which left them no realistic shot at making a late comeback, despite the last-second field goal on the ensuing drive.
Play of the game
Both of these offenses were pretty stagnant for the first three quarters. They each managed a sole touchdown drive, but beyond that were either punting or fumbling. That was until the very first play of the fourth quarter when Mason Rudolph was faced with a third-and-4 situation from the Pittsburgh 29-yard line. It was at that moment that he had his best throw of the day, which was a seed over the middle to Diontae Johnson, who took it 71 yards to the house to break the seven-all score.
This angle in particular shows Rudolph hitting Johnson in stride and threading the needle in between multiple Ravens defenders.
That was the longest touchdown reception of Johnson's career and gave the Steelers the lead for the rest of the game.
What's next
As we noted above, Pittsburgh now needs one of the following to happen: a Bills loss to the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday, a Jaguars loss to the Titans in Tennessee on Sunday, or if the Texans-Colts game on Saturday ends in a tie. If any of those situations occur, they reach the playoffs. Meanwhile, Baltimore is already locked into the No. 1 seed in the AFC, so they will now enjoy the break and await whoever is the lowest remaining seed to come out of the wild card round.