Last night, the sixth seed Baltimore Ravens took on the third seed Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game of the AFC Wild-Card round. The last time these two teams met up, the Steelers defeated the Ravens 43-23 at Heinz Field. On Saturday night, it was a different story at Heinz Field as Baltimore won 30-17 over Pittsburgh.
The Steelers came into last night’s game without star running back Le’Veon Bell, and the offense suffered mightily. On Pittsburgh’s first three scoring drives, they were only able to get three made Shaun Suisham field goals. For the Ravens, they were playing well on both sides of the ball as quarterback Joe Flacco played phenomenal.
Throughout the game, he made great throws to his wide receivers early and often, trying to stretch the field. In the first quarter, Flacco tried to get receiver Jacoby Jones involved down the middle of the field, but instead Steelers safety Mike Mitchell was called for unnecessary roughness. Pittsburgh’s penalty gave Baltimore great field position as running back Bernard Pierce scored a five-yard touchdown to give the Ravens a 7-3.
At the half, the Ravens held a slight 10-6 lead over the Steelers as both teams tacked on a few field goals.
In the second half, the Ravens stepped up to the challenge, while the Steelers blew their chances. Late in the third quarter on 3rd-and-7, Flacco somehow escaped from the grasp of James Harrison to find wide receiver Torrey Smith in the back of the end zone for a touchdown to make the score 20-7.
With Baltimore increasing their lead, Pittsburgh was in trouble but got some help from Ravens running back Justin Forsett to keep them in the game. On 1st-and-10 with 11:54 left in the game, Forsett fumbled the ball away and Steelers rookie defensive end Stephon Tuitt recovered the ball in Ravens’ territory.
After the Ravens’ miscue, Ben Roethlisberger found Antonio Brown for a deep touchdown but after further review his knee was down at the goal line. Then after a false start penalty, Roethlisberger found rookie wide receiver Martavis Bryant for a touchdown to cut the lead down to 20-15.
Baltimore had a response for Pittsburgh as kicker Justin Tucker knocked through a 52-yard field goal to increase the Ravens lead to 23-15. After the Ravens scored, the Steelers once again had another miscue.
On 3rd-and-4, Roethlisberger was looking for running back Ben Tate but instead Terrell Suggs made an incredible interception somehow placing the football in between his thighs. Big time players make big time plays and that what Suggs did.
Off of the Steelers’ turnover, Flacco off the play action found rookie tight end Crockett Gillmore for a 21-yard touchdown pass to put the final nail in Pittsburgh’s coffin. The Steelers added a safety off a blocked punt with under two minutes to go in the game. Flacco and the Ravens outplayed Roethlisberger and the Steelers to win 30-17.
When it comes to the playoffs, you need to win the turnover battle and your quarterback must play good and make plays. Both of those things happened for the Ravens as they won the turnover battle 3-1 and Flacco was elite.
Flacco threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns while only being sacked once. He also made plays outside of the pocket which gave the Steelers’ defense something else to think about. With the victory, the Ravens will now advance to the divisional round of the playoffs to take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
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