With eight minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter, 1st down, 15 to go, Lamar Jackson throws a deep ball to Justice Hill. Much to everyone’s surprise, Hill isn’t the one who comes away with it, somehow it’s 41 in black and gold, Peyton Wilson.
The 2023 winner of the Butkus award, presented to the nation’s top linebacker, shocked everyone when he somehow came up with arguably the game winning turnover, setting up a Chris Boswell field goal, 18-10 Steelers.
The Ravens would march down the field on the following drive and score their second TD of the game with 1:06 left on the clock, but it wasn’t enough. The Steelers would ultimately stop the two point conversion and run the clock out in a 18-16 nail biter in the ‘Burgh.
This game was exactly what one might expect from a mid November matchup between the Ravens and Steelers. Ground and pound, plenty of turnovers, and fighting tooth and nail for every point. In this scrappy winner take the North showdown, the Steelers proved why they deserve to be on top.
The real star for the Steelers was the defense, and even though the offense failed to find the end zone, they kept the Ravens offense off the field long enough. The defense walked away from this contest with two forced fumbles, one interception, but I think most importantly, holding Derrick Henry to 65 total rush yards.
Another huge stat line on defense was Patrick Queen, with Mike Tomlin giving another gem after the game saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” referring to the Ravens allowing Queen to hit free agency in the off season. Queen had one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, three solo tackles, one tackle for a loss, and seven assisted tackles.
The total time of possession might be the most shocking/impressive stat of the day for the Steelers. The Ravens were held to 23:32 time of possession to the Steelers 36:22. That right there is the entire reason the Steelers were able to come away with this victory.
The passing game between Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson was almost identical. Wilson had 36 attempts, 23 completions, 205 total yards, one interception. Jackson had 33 attempts, 16 completions, 207 total yards, one interception. Lamar did get a TD throw in there, and his rushing was far more than Russ, to no one’s surprise.
Aside from two of Wilson’s “moon balls” this game was just chipping away yards, and the Steelers were able to successfully stay on the field and eat away at the clock while putting up just enough points. I know there will be a lot of fans today that won’t be happy about the Steelers not finding the end zone, but again, they did what was necessary to win this game.
With the Steelers heading to Cleveland to take on the Browns this coming Thursday, then headed into Cincinnati December 1st to face the Bengals, the Steelers still have a ways to go. Following the Bengals they have the Browns again at home, Eagles in Philly, Ravens in Baltimore, Chiefs at home, and finishing with the Bengals at home. It’s a long road to the playoffs, but the Steelers showed why they should be feared moving forward.
It’s crazy that this was the Steelers first divisional game of the season, but with so many on the horizon, it is important they don’t take this lead for granted. It is up to them to defend the North and clinch the division for the first time since 2020.
